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Book. Mj^U<5 



61sT Congress] 

3d Session ) 



I Document 

I No. 871 



I . S G I ST" v.*V-^y^rt . r. 



i^ ) - 1"^ } I . 



SAMUEL D. McENERY 

(Late a Senator from Louisiana) 

MEMORIAL ADDRESSES 

DELIVERED IN THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF 
REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES 

SIXTY-FIRST CONGRESS 
THIRD SESSION 



Proceedings in the Senate 
February 20, 1911 



Proceedings in the House 
February 26, 1911 



COMPILED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF 
THE JOINT COMMITTEE ON PRINTING 



in 



WASHINGTON 

1911 






TABLE OF CONTENTS 



I'age. 

Proceedings in the Senate 5 

Pniyer by Rev. Ulysses G. B. Pierce, D. D 5, 7 

Memorial addresses by- 
Mr. Foster, of Louisiana 9 

Mr. Gallinger, of New Hampshire 23 

Mr. Fletcher, of Florida 25 

Mr. Smoot, of Utah 30 

Mr. Thornton, of Louisiana 33 

Proceedings in the House 37 

Prayer by Rev. Henry N. Couden, D. D 38 

Memorial addresses by — 

Mr. Ransdell, of Louisiana 41 

Mr. Gordon, of Tennessee 52 

Mr. Burgess, of Texas 56 

Mr. Madden, of Illinois 58 

Mr. Broussard, of Louisiana 62 

Mr. Lamb, of Virginia 77 

Mr. Goulden, of New York 82 

Mr. Pujo, of Louisiana ' 85 

Mr. Padgett, of Tennessee 87 

Mr. Flood, of Virginia 92 

Mr. Estopinal, of Louisiana. .J 94 

Mr. Collier, of Mississippi 97 

Mr. Dupre, of Louisiana 100 

Mr. Wickliffe, of Louisiana 105 



[3] 



•^ 





SAMUEL D.M^ENERY 



DEATH OF HON. SAMUEL DOUGLAS McENERY 



Proceedings in the Senate 

December 5, 1910. 

The Vice President (James S. Sherman, of New York) 
called the Senate to order at 12 o'clock noon. 

The Chaplain, Rev. Ulysses G. B. Pierce, D. D., ofifered 
the following prayer: 

Almighty God, our heavenly Father, in whose presence 
we now stand, look with favor, we pray Thee, upon Thy 
waiting servants now before Thee, and graciously hear 
the common supplication which with one heart and with 
one mind we make unto Thee. 

The absent faces remind us anew that it is not in us 
who walk to direct our steps, and that we are ever de- 
pendent upon Thee, without whom not a sparrow falleth. 
We remember before Thee, our Father, those of our body 
whom Thou hast called from these earthly courts to 
Thine higher service, and pray that there as here they 
may be compassed about by Thine everlasting arms. 

And for us, as we gird ourselves for the work to which 
Thou hast called us, we pray that we may be guided by 
Thy wisdom and upheld by Thy strength; that this ses- 
sion, begun in Thy name, may be continued by Thy grace 
and ended to Thy glory. 

And unto the name which is above even,' name will we 
render praise, now and forevermore. Amen. 



[5] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator McEnery 



Mr. Foster. Mr. President, it is my sad duty to an- 
nounce to the Senate the death of my late colleague, the 
Hon. Samuel Douglas McEnery, a Senator in this body 
from the State of Louisiana. He died at his home in the 
city of New Orleans on the morning of the 28th of June 
last. 

Mr. President, I shall not speak to-day upon the great 
services which my colleague rendered to his native State 
and to his country, but at a later date I shall ask the Sen- 
ate to fix a day when appropriate ceremonies can be had 
and proper tributes paid commemorative of his life, 
character, and public services. 

I send the following resolutions to the desk and ask 
for their immediate consideration. 

The Vice President. The Secretary will read the resolu- 
tions offered by the Senator from Louisiana. 

The Secretary read the resolutions, as follows: 

Resolved, That the Senate has heard with profound sorrow of 
the death of the Hon. Samuel D. McEnery, late a Senator from 
the State of I^ouisiana. 

Resolved, That the Secretary communicate a copy of these reso- 
lutions to the House of Representatives. 

The Vice President. The question is on agreeing to the 
resolutions. 

The resolutions were unanimously agreed to. 



January 24, 1911. 

Mr. Martin. Mr. President, after conference with my 
colleague [Mr. Swanson] and with the Senators from 
Louisiana, and with their concurrence, I desire to give 
notice that on Monday, the 20th day of February, at half 
past 2 o'clock, I will ask the Senate to lay aside all other 

[6] 



Proceedings in the Senate 



business in order that proper tribute may be paid to 
the memory of my late colleague, Senator Daniel, 
and the memory of the late Senator from Louisiana, 
Mr. McEnery. 



Monday, February 20, 1911. 

The Senate met at 11 o'clock a. m. 

The Chaplain, Rev. Ulysses G. B. Pierce, D. D., offered 
the following prayer : 

Almighty God, our heavenly Father, unseen but not 
unknown, in' our great loss we take refuge in Thee, who 
hast been our refuge in all generations. In our sorrow 
Thy pity revives our fainting souls, and in our distress 
Thou hearest us as we call upon Thee. Thou hast indeed 
been unto us like the shadow of a great rock in a weary 
land. 

And now, heavenly Father, in our affliction give unto 
us the peace that floweth as a river. In our sorrow grant 
unto us the comfort that is born of hope and the faith that 
is rooted in love. As we meditate upon the life of Thy 
servants whom Thou hast called from our midst, make 
us worthy of the fellowship of the great cloud of wit- 
nesses with which Thou hast surrounded us. 

And unto Thee, who art the God of all comfort and of 
all grace, will we ascribe praise, now and forevermore. 
Amen. 

Mr. Foster. Mr. President, I offer the resolutions which 
I send to the desk. 

The Vice President. The Secretary will read the reso- 
lutions submitted by the Senator from Louisiana. 

[7J 



Memorial Aodkesses: Senator McEnery 

The resolutions were read, considered by unanimous 
consent, and unanimously agreed to, as follows: 

Resolved, That the Senate has heard with profound sorrow of 
the death of the Hon. Samuel Douglas McEnery, late a Senator 
from the State of Louisiana. 

fiesotved. That, as a mark of respect to the memory of the de- 
ceased Senator, the business of the Senate be now suspended to 
enable his associates to pay proper tribute to his high character 
and distinguished public services. 

Resolved, That the Secretary communicate a copy of these reso- 
lutions to the House of Representatives and transmit a copy 
thereof to the family of the deceased. 



18] 



MEMORIAL ADDRESSES 



Address of Mr. Foster, of Louisiana 

Mr. President: It is with feelings peculiarly tender that 
I offer this last tribute to the memory of my late col- 
league, Senator Samuel Douglas McEnery. 

There was so much of his public life intimately con- 
nected with my own, almost from the time I reached 
man's estate until he died, that his death was a veritable 
shock to me. He was lieutenant governor of Louisiana 
and presiding ofhcer of the State senate at the same time 
I became a member of that body, and for years we fought 
shoulder to shoulder many of the political battles of the 
State until political exigencies demanded that we should 
lead opposing forces in the bitterest factional contest 
Louisiana has ever known. These differences were 
buried years ago, and in their stead there grew up and 
existed the warmest friendship. Our relations in this 
body were particularly friendly, and I felt a great per- 
sonal loss when he passed away. 

Samuel Douglas McEnery was a native of Monroe, La. 
His father. Col. Henry O'Neil McEner>', was born in Ire- 
land, but emigrated to this country in early youth, and 
settled at Petersburg, Va., where he married Miss Eliza- 
beth Douglas, of that State. 

His father remained in the Old Dominion some years 
after marriage, and several sons were born there, among 

[9] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator McEnerv 



them John McEnery, an elder brother of the Senator, who 
was also destined to become one of the governors of 
Louisiana. 

The father moved with his young family from Virginia 
to Louisiana in 1835, settled in Ouachita Parish, acquired 
a plantation, and there, two years later, on May 28, 1837, 
his youngest son, Samuel Douglas, was born. 

It was a new country, and had been settled by strong 
and masterful men, who were planters on a large scale 
and employed slave labor. They had to meet and over- 
come untold difficulties, and, without doubt, these early 
experiences left their imprint on the boy, for they were 
calculated to develop the traits of independence, pluck, 
and courage that marked his career throughout life to 
the very end. 

But while the hardships of those early days were many 
the rewards were even greater. Land was plentiful, the 
crops abundant, and the family prospered. 

Col. McEnery was an able and successful man, one 
who made many friends and acquired a great deal of 
influence in his adopted State. He was a Whig in poli- 
tics until that party disappeared before the aggressive 
onslaughts of the " Know Nothings," when he became a 
Democrat, and remained a conspicuous figure in that 
party until death. As a reward for his public services 
he was twice appointed register of the land office at 
Monroe, La., a position of trust and responsibility, espe- 
cially in a new countrj' at that time. 

Col. McEnery was enabled to equip his sons for the 
struggle of life in the best schools and colleges the coun- 
trj' afforded, and his youngest son, who had been named 
for an uncle on the Federal bench in Florida, was given 
a thorough academic education at Spring Hill College, 
conducted by the Jesuit fathers, near Mobile, .\la. .\ftcr 
graduating there he was appointed to the United States 

[10] 



Address of Mh. Foster, ok Louisiana 



Naval Academy at Annapolis, and practically finished 
the course at the institution, when he resigned to enter 
the University of Virginia, where he remained until 
the death of his father in 1857. Then he matriculated at 
the National Law School at Poughkeepsie, N. Y., studied 
two years, and was graduated in 1859. 

At the solicitation of a former classmate at Annapolis 
he went to Maryville, Mo., opened a law office, and had 
begun the practice of his profession there when the war 
came on between the States. Without hesitancy he re- 
sponded to the call of the South and enlisted as a private 
in the army of the Confederacy. The rudiments of mili- 
tary training received at the United States Naval Acad- 
emy, together with a masterful and intrepid character, 
attracted the attention of his superiors, so that while 
serving under Gen. Magruder in the early Virginia 
campaigns he was promoted and commissioned a lieu- 
tenant. Later he was transferred to the trans-Mississippi 
department, where he saw hard service and heavy 
fighting. 

With peace he returned to Louisiana to assist in re- 
building it from the devastation of four long years of 
war and secured employment teaching school in Ouachita 
Parish. He was lo learn, however, that those who had 
just laid down their arms could not travel the paths of 
peace imtil another long and bitter struggle was waged, 
even more cruel than hostilities in the open field con- 
ducted under the rules of war. 

It is not necessarj' to recount the horrors of that time. 
Their enormities have often been repeated here, and the 
countiy is familiar with them. 

It suffices to saj^ that out of those bitter and angry 
passions a condition developed calling for all there 
was of leadership and patriotism among the white men 
of the South, and it was at this juncture that Capt 

[11] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator McEnery 



Samuel Douglas McEnery first became generally known 
and endeared to the people of the State. 

All through the struggle to restore white supremacy 
Capt. McEnery was active, determined, and aggressive, 
never ceasing his efforts until the government of Loui- 
siana rested again in the hands of the white people. 
Then he returned to his labors in the public schools and 
later resumed the practice of law. 

At this time a number of public oOices were tendered 
him as a reward for the part he took in redeeming the 
State, but he refused them. 

He had been marked as one of the leaders of the time, 
however, and in 1879 was nominated for lieutenant gov- 
ernor. This honor was all the greater because the con- 
vention that named him was controlled by the opposing 
faction of his party, and its action was in recognition of 
his heroic service in the cause of white supremacy. 

As lieutenant governor he served two years, when the 
death of Gov. Wiltz, in 1881, called him to the guberna- 
torial chair and placed the destinies of Louisiana in his 
hands. 

Shortly after he assumed office the seat of government 
was removed from New Orleans back to Baton Rouge, 
where it had existed before the war, and he will always 
be remembered as the first executive to administer the 
affairs of the State from the restored capital. 

Few executives have had to contend with such unfavor- 
able conditions as prevailed in the State at that time. 
War, pestilence, flood, and famine, following in close 
succession, left their fell effect upon her people. 

The financial condition, when he became governor, 
was unsatisfactory. Doubt, distrust, and litigation had 
well-nigh destroyed the credit of the State, and at one 
time it was feared that certain of the courts would have 
to suspend for want of funds. 

[12] 



Address of Mr. Foster, of Louisi.\na 



The expenditures largely exceeded the revenues. By 
way of illustration, the receipts from licenses and taxes 
placed to the credit of the general fund in 1880-81 were 
little more than half the appropriations charged against 
the fund. The magnitude of the task confronting him 
can therefore be readily seen. 

To meet this deplorable situation Gov. McEnery con- 
vened the legislature in extra session, and our public 
duties brought us together then for the first time. 

In his first message he called attention to the fact that 
during the reconstruction period the revenue laws of the 
State had been progressively growing less efficient. 
Large amounts of property, movable and immovable, 
had escaped taxation, and there was no uniformity of 
assessment. As a consequence some sections were pay- 
ing a large tax on a high valuation and others a small 
tax on a low valuation. 

The assessment roll for 1880 showed a valuation of 
less than $178,000,000, which was wrong, he said, and 
did Iho State no credit; if fairly assessed at only two- 
thirds of its valuation the assessment should easily show 
$300,000,000, and he recommended legislation that would 
correct the evils of unjust and unequal valuation. 

But before these reforms could be carried out, and 
almost at the inception of his administration, Louisiana 
was almost overwhelmed with the most destructive flood 
that has ever visited any State. 

Inundations have by no means been infrequent in 
the history of that Commonwealth, but none have 
approached the destruction wrought in 1882. The tor- 
rent that swept down from the northern rivers broke 
through the levees of Louisiana in 83 different places. 
The arable land inundated amounted to 606,674 acres, 
and in 16 parishes alone the loss sustained amounted 
to $12,061,910. 

[13] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator McEnery 



In this torrent dwelling houses, cabins, fences, and all 
improvements were swept away; the work stock and 
cattle were drowned by the thousands, and the destruc- 
tion and suffering of the people was intense. Thousands 
of families were imprisoned for days upon the roofs of 
houses, rafts, or small areas of elevated land, and when 
the floods subsided they were powerless to cultivate their 
fields. 

There were recurring floods for the next two years, 
and the damage was less only because the flood had left 
less to destroy. 

The empty treasury, the havoc wrought by the ele- 
ments, the demand for levees and other public works, 
together with the unsettled conditions throughout her 
borders, demanded executive ability of high order to 
direct the ship of state, and Gov. McEnery threw him- 
self into the work with all the zeal and energj- that had 
characterized his leadership in the White League. 

Two years after the disastrous flood of 1882 he reported 
to tlie legislature that 120 contracts for the construction 
of levees had been let, and that 130 miles of levees, em- 
bracing over three and one-half million cubic yards of 
earth, had been built. ' 

The limited resources of the State prevented earning 
out at the time many of his suggestions, but his messages 
to the general assembly are replete with wisdom and 
valuable advice. 

The public schools especially appealed to liim. His 
personal experience as a teacher immediately after the 
vi'ar enabled him to thoroughly understand their wants, 
and he labored for the improvement of the system. 

In his message to the legislature he recommended that 
every cent not needed for current expenses should be 
appropriated for public instruction, and legislation en- 
acted to provide for compulsoiy attendance at school. 

[14] 



Address of Mr. Foster, of Louisiana 



He said the State should interfere as little as possible 
with the econoim' of the family, but had a right to protect 
itself by requiring enforced attendance. He held, how- 
ever, " that the State could only give a general and partial 
superintendence in this matter. That the danger of 
popular education lay in relying exclusively on the State 
and National authority for aid; and that no community 
succeeded in educating its children until it had faced the 
hard fact of local taxation." 

Gov. McEnery's administration, following as closely as 
it did upon the heels of the ignorance, extravagance, and 
corruption that marked the reconstruction period, upon 
the epidemics that scourged that State in 1878 and 1879, 
and upon the floods that wrought such havoc in 1882, 
1883, and 1884, would have been notable for the repairs 
it made to this long and varied series of disasters if for no 
other reason. 

But his administration was notable, aside from these, 
for many legislative achievements and public works; and 
while there are numerous things for which it will be 
remembered, the greatest of these, it may be said, is 
charity. 

While he was governor the State provided for the per- 
manent maintenance of Camp Nicholls as a home for the 
brave men who gave their youth and manhood for her 
defense during the war between the States, while the 
Charity Hospital in New Orleans, one of the noblest and 
grandest institutions of its kind in all the world, was the 
special object of his care and attention. 

As a result of his assistance the ambulance service of 
that institution was established, and by the inauguration 
of consultation clinics, its beneficent work was extended 
to the outdoor poor. 

The impulse he gave to this great work of philanthropy, 
the kindly influence he exerted in promoting its useful- 

[15] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator McEnery 

ness, and the material assistance he rendered in enlarging 
it are recorded in the archives of the State and em- 
blazoned on the walls of the institution itself so that 
future generations may know them. 

Although not renominated at the expiration of his sec- 
ond or regular term, it was characteristic of him that he 
did not sulk in his tent. 

Recognizing the necessity of Democratic success and 
white supremacy, he threw himself into the contest with 
all his old-time ardor and energj', rendering invaluable 
service in one of the most brilliant campaigns ever waged 
in Louisiana. Shortly thereafter, when a vacancy oc- 
curred on the supreme bench, he was appointed, not only 
as a recognition of his high service alone, but as a tribute 
to his high integrity and to the complete confidence of 
the people in him. 

While he was serving in this high judicial capacity, 
some twenty-odd years ago, he and I were called upon to 
lead opposing factions in the Democratic Party as candi- 
dates for governor. 

The campaign centered upon the rechartering of the 
Louisiana Lotterj' Co., an institution created during the 
days of reconstruction, and a heritage of the very con- 
ditions from which Capt. McEnery had fought to relieve 
the State. 

It is diflicult for one who did not participate in that 
campaign to appreciate the bitterness it engendered, or 
the heartburnings that remained long years after tlie 
struggle was ended. 

It is no exaggeration to say tliat nowhere since seces- 
sion was the issue has any State been wrought up to 
such a high pitch of excitement as existed in Louisiana 
during the struggle for the recharter for the lottci-y 
company. 



[16] 



Address of Mr. Foster, of Loimsiana 

The issue went against his faction. I was elected gov- 
ernor and he resumed his duties as a member of the 
supreme court. And right here I wish to say that had 
he never served his people in any but a judicial capacity 
his fame would have been secure, for as a jurist his work 
was of the highest order. His natural mental gifts had 
been improved by careful study and he possessed the 
faculty of expression in a remarkable degree, so that his 
decisions were noted no less for their deep learning and 
cogent reasoning than for their clearness and perfect 
diction. 

It was a peculiar coincidence, Mr. President, that both 
men who successfully opposed him in his last two con- 
tests for the governorship should afterwards be instru- 
mental in elevating him to other high offices where they 
served with him. 

Yet this is exactly what happened with both Gov. 
Nicholls and myself. After the bitter campaign of 1888, 
Gov. Nicholls, as I have said, in recognition of his great 
services and eminent abilities, appointed him to a posi- 
tion on the supreme bench of the State, to which illus- 
trious body the governor went himself after his term of 
office. 

And even as Gov. Nicholls had tendered him a place 
upon the supreme bench, so it was my great privilege, 
while serving as governor, to be instrumental in having 
him come to the Senate. 

Both had met him in battle on the hustings for the 
suffrage of the jieople, and with good reason knew his 
worth as an antagonist in the field; both had known him 
when the bitterness of the struggle had been buried and 
forgotten, in the judicial chamber or here in the Senate; 
both became endeared to him because of his lovable 
personality and sterling worth of character; and. Mr. 
President, I am absolutely frank in saying that when 



93228°— 11- 



[17] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator McEnerv 



he died there were no two men in the State who 
more deeply deplored his passing than Gen. Nicholls and 
myself. 

The devotion in which he was held was never more 
clearly shown than when first elected to the Senate in 
1896. The democracy was confronted with a crisis that 
year and he was called upon to save it. 

The legislature was charged with the election of a 
United States Senator. After a spirited contest it was 
found impossihle to return the regular party candidate, 
owing to factional wounds, and a condition developed 
which threatened to deprive the party of the senatorship. 
In this situation there was but one man is the State 
upon whom all factions could unite. That was Justice 
McEnery, and it was decided to call him from the quiet 
shades of the judicial chambers to take up the legislative 
burdens here in the Senate. 

In this instance, as throughout his career, he never 
faltered when the Democratic Party called. Owing to his 
views on the tariff, however, which placed him at vari- 
ance with a majority of his party, he announced his desire 
to make his position clear to the Democratic caucus. He 
frankly declared that he was a protectionist, in favor of 
all internal improvements, with broad national views on 
many other questions, and that he could not change these 
views. He was elected with the understanding tliat he 
should be free to vote in accordance with his personal 
views on those questions, and these facts should not be 
forgotten in considering his record here. 

During the consideration of the present tariff laws, his 
attitude was the subject of widespread comment, and of 
bitter criticism in certain quarters. The position he then 
assumed, however, was in keeping with the announce- 
ment he made to the legislative caucus when first elected, 
and with the stand he took on first coming to the Senate, 

[18] 



Address of Mk. Fostkh, of Lovisiaxa 

upon the convening of the Fifty-fifth Congress, in 1897, 
when the Dingley law was being drafted. 

Addressing the Senate early that session, he called 
attention to criticism just then being leveled at him for 
the first time since entering the field of national politics 
and stated that his position was by no means new to the 
people of Louisiana. It was substantially the same, he 
asserted, as he had assumed in 1884, when triumphantly 
elected by the people of that State to succeed himself 
in the high office of governor. "And when I was nomi- 
nated by a Democratic caucus for this present position," 
he continued, meaning the senatorship, " before the 
vote was taken, and so that there could be no misunder- 
standing, I went before the caucus, although not called 
on, and made the same statement iliat I did in my in- 
augural address in 1884." He believed the tariff to be 
pureh' a business question, which had no place in party 
politics. 

But while his views on the tariff were most familiar 
to the present generation, it is likely that he will best be 
known to posterity because of his attitude toward Hawaii 
and the Philippines. 

In acquiring those islands and absorbing their unciv- 
ilized people, he feared this country' was entering upon 
an era of turmoil and stiife, and by the introduction of 
the McEnei-y resolution did all within his power to avert 
what he considered must prove ultimate disaster. 

That resolution, adopted by the Senate in the Fifty- 
fifth Congress, was as follows: 

Resolved, That by the ratification of tlie treaty of peace with 
Spain it is not intended to incorporate the inhabitants of the 
Pliilippine Islands into citizenship of the United States, nor is 
it intended to permanently annex said islands as an integral part 
of the territory of the United States, but it is the intention of the 
United States to establish on said islands a government suitable 



[19] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator McEnery 



to the wants and conditions of tlie inliabitants of said islands as 
will best promote the interests of the citizens of the United States 
and the inhabitants of the said islands. 

That resolution was presented when the countr>' was 
flushed with the victory of the Spanish War. The banner 
of Castile and Aragon had been driven from the Pacific, 
the aegis of this Republic had been extended over 2,000 
islands of the sea, and more than 10,000,000 people sud- 
denly found themselves beneath our flag. 

He knew that it was not popular to advocate withdraw- 
ing from the Philippines, nor did he propose doing so 
until order was restored, acknowledgment received of 
our undisputed sovereignty, and provision made for coal- 
ing stations and other naval needs. 

But he also knew that two races could not live in har- 
mony and on terms of equality anywhere, not even in 
the Orient. I lis knowledge as a profound student of 
history, together with his bitter personal experience dur- 
ing the reconstruction period in the South, told him that 
the immutable laws of nature forbade it, and in order 
that those islands might not become an integral part of 
this country, he introduced and advocated the now 
famous McEnery amendment. 

The adoption of this resolution was very bitterly 
opposed by many Senators who were against the ratifica- 
tion of the treaty of Paris, and it was the subject of a 
fierce and bitter debate in this body. 

1 shall not go into the merits of that debate nor discuss 
the difTerences of opinion as to the effects of this resolu- 
tion, but shall content myself with stating that the de- 
ceased Senator always contended that his great purpose 
in intro(hicing this resolulion was to prevent the incorpo- 
ration of the F'ilipino into tlie citizenship of this Republic, 
an<l to prevent a permanent annexation of the islands as 
an integral part of the territory of the United States. 

[20] 



Address of Mr. Foster, of Lolisiana 



In 1878 Senator McEnery married Miss Elizabeth 
Phillips, daughter of a prominent planter of Ouachita 
Parish, a lady of much culture and refinement, who sur- 
vived him, with two sons, Mr. Charles Phillips McEnery, 
and Dr. Douglas W. McEneiy, and one daughter, Jane, 
wife of Mr. W. B. Parks, all residing in New Orleans. 

Senator McEnery was one of the historic characters of 
his State. He was, at different times, lieutenant governor, 
governor, associate justice of the supreme court, and 
United States Senator, and his promotion from one place 
to another in regular progression proved that he filled 
all the places with credit and to the advantage of his 
people. 

He was a Louisianian in every sense of the word, 
devoted to the interests of his people, and with marked 
ability and characteristic independence sought to serve 
them whenever and wherever lie could. 

He carried with him a personality of his own. He was 
a courtly gentleman, a true and loyal friend, and a brave, 
honest, and courageous public servant. As a Senator he 
was universally loved and respected, and in ever\'thing 
that he did while here, it is my honest conviction that he 
did it from a high sense of duty to the people whom he 
represented. He acted upon the principle that his first 
duty was to his State, and, while at times differing with 
his party associates, yet he always held their respect and 
confidence. 

The late Senator was verj' close to the hearts of our 
people. They held him high in their love and esteem. 
The people knew him. They knew his faults and virtues, 
and they implicitly trusted him. They knew that he 
always placed their interests above personal considera- 
tion and that their welfare was uppermost in all his 
endeavors. This is attested by the fact that while occupy- 
ing high positions in which his personal interests might 

[21] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator McEnery 

have been advanced, yet he died a poor man — a splendid 
tribute to the honesty, integrity, and uprightness of his 
public and private life. 

It is well known that for a number of years Senator 
McEnery and 1 were opposed in politics. After I became 
associated with him in the Senate our acquaintance soon 
ripened into a profound friendship. I doubt if there were 
any two Senators from any State in the Union whose 
relations were more pleasant and congenial than ours. 

It was a pleasure to have him as a colleague. He was 
always courteous, kind, and thoughtful, and never during 
the term of our service did we have a serious disagree- 
ment. Sometimes, it is true, we voted differently, but 
we each accorded the other the sincerity and honesty of 
conviction, and such differences never interfered in the 
slightest either in our personal or official relations. He 
was to me a friend upon whom I could absolutely rely 
and whose loyalty and devotion 1 could trust without 
question. Such a friend is indeed a loss. 

Senator McEnery left Washington City at the close of 
the last session in good health, but was taken sick on the 
train before reaching New Orleans and had to be car- 
ried home. He lingered for a short time, very weak, but 
conscious almost to the verj' end, and met the summons 
from beyond in the same brave, courageous spirit that he 
met all the difficulties and trials of life. 

Surrounded by his wife and cliildren, and wdth almost 
the same sweet, gentle smile that always greeted his 
friends and loved ones, be met the reaper, while his spirit 
passed beyond the river, and let us hope will rest forever 
in peace. 






[22] 



Address of Mr. Gallinger, of New Hampshire 

Mr. President: The late Senator from Louisiana be- 
longed to a type of men quite too rare in tliese days. He 
was a man of dignity, integrity, high sense of honor, and 
independence of thought. A Democrat in politics, he did 
not allow partisanship to control his speech or his votes. 
Once satisfied that he was right, no influence could swerve 
him from the path he had marked out. He belonged to 
the old school of southern statesmen, and he carried him- 
self with a poise and dignity of manner that bespoke the 
gentleman that he was. Courteous, kind, thoughtful of 
others, he connnanded the respect of his associates in the 
Senate, as well as of the people of the State which he 
so ably and conscientiously represented. 

It was my privilege to serve with the late Senator 
McEnery for 13 years. Of the same age as myself, there 
was much in common between us, and our friendly rela- 
tions were to me a source of much pleasure. We were 
both members of the Committee on Naval Affairs, and in 
the committee room I learned to value and admire him. 
He was a constant attendant upon the meetings of the 
committee, and in the matter of appropriations for the 
Navy was neither reckless nor parsimonious. He be- 
lieved in a well-balanced and strong Navy, and his voice 
and vote were in favor of adequate appropriations to 
build it up and sustain it. A student at the United States 
Naval Academy at Annapolis, he was a warm friend of 
that institution, taking special pride in its development 
and success. Always watchful of the interests of his own 



[23] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator McEnery 

State, he was. broad-minded and generous toward all 
other sections of the country. 

As I knew Senator McEnery, he was a most charming 
and lovable man. Brave and self-reliant, he was at the 
same time tender and considerate. He never lost sight 
of his obligations to his fellow men and never inten- 
tionally wounded their feelings or wronged them in any 
way. He was a conscientious public servant, a popular 
citizen, and a good and true friend. He stood for what 
is best in life, living up to high and true ideals. 

Mr. President, Samuel Douglas McEnery brought honor 
to his State in all the positions of trust and responsibilitj' 
that his people conferred on him. In the Senate he illus- 
trated the high qualities of heart and brain with which 
he was endowed. He had the confidence and respect of 
every Member on both sides of the Chamber, and the 
announcement of his death brought a peculiar sadness 
to all our hearts. We miss him from his accustomed 
place in this body; we miss his genial greeting and his 
kindly words. He has answered the summons that sooner 
or later will come to us all, and it will be well for us if, 
when the call comes, we are as well prepared for the 
great change as was our associate and friend in whose 
honor these words of eulogj' are being spoken to-day. 
He has gone from us, but his memoi-j' will be a benedic- 
tion and an inspiration to all who practice truth, who 
love justice, and whose life is patterned after the teach- 
ings and example of the Master. On his grave we would 
place a flower, and in our heart of hearts we would 
embalm the memoi'j' of a good man whose services to 
his State and his countrj' entitle him to a place among 
those who have brought honor and renown to the insti- 
tutions of the Republic. 



[24] 



Address of Mr. Fletcher, of Florida 

Mr. President: Alexander, son of Philip of Macedon, 
became captain general of Greece, repelled the Persian 
invasion, captured the East, mourned that there were no 
more worlds to conquer, and died at the age of 32. The 
times were different from ours. There have been few 
Alexanders and no such conditions since. 

Seventy-three years seems rather a generous allowance 
for the life of an individual, but for one capable of great 
service at a time when there is so much needed to be 
done, it appears but a short time. To obtain an educa- 
tion to fit one for a noble profession itself requires quite 
a few of those years. To become established in that pro- 
fession and make a reputation for high proficiency 
requires time. To have such a career interrupted by 
active sei-vice in the field during a terrible war would 
consume quite a few years at a critical period in such a 
life. The governmental affairs of a great State, such as 
must be understood by the chief executive, are sufficiently 
important and exacting to occupy the best years of one's 
life. The position of associate justice of the supreme 
court of that State, with the onerous duties imposed in 
that high judicial capacity, might well amplify such a 
career and crown such a life. 

Faithful and satisfactoiy service in these exalted posi- 
tions would seem about all that could be well crowded 
into the life of one individual. 

It must have been extraordinary qualifications for the 
widest fields of general public usefulness that moved 
Samlel Douglas McEnekv on to the national forum and 

[25] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator McEnery 

caused him to be chosen by his people a Senator of the 
United States from the State of Louisiana in 1896, again 
in 1902, and again in 1908. 

Rarely, I think, can it be found that so much has been 
accomplished in the years allotted to him. Seldom have 
such responsibilities been heaped on one man's shoulders. 
It required unusual capacity and ability of a high and 
varied character to successfully meet the obligations, dis- 
charge the duties, and perfonn the services which pressed 
upon our friend. That he squarely faced and completely 
mastered the difficulties of every situation; that he pos- 
sessed a keen sense and correct conception of fiduciary 
responsibility, which he carried into practice; that he 
diligently and faithfully performed what was undertaken 
is demonstrated by the continued confidence of his peo- 
ple, which amounted to genuine affection and absolute 
trust. 

His early and extensive mental training; the discipline 
and hardship of active army service; the stiri-ing times, 
arousing every patriotic impulse and calling out the 
resources of his strong intellectual and moral nature, 
which he experienced in the days of young manhood, 
combined to equip him for the highest official station. 
Born at Monroe, La., May 28, 1837; educated at Spring 
Hill College and the University of Virginia; a lieutenant 
in the Confederate Army; engaging in the practice of 
law; we find him governor of Louisiana when he was 44 
years of age. At 51 he was associate justice of the 
supreme court of his State, and while occupying that 
position he was elected United States Senator. 

On all matters with which he had to deal he consulted 
his own judgment and conscience, earnestly and seri- 
ously. Not that he was inconsiderate of others, or heed- 
less of their oi)inions, or not respectful of the views of 
his fellows, but his final action had to square with his 

[26] 



AnnRKSs of Mr. Fletcher, oe Florida 



reason and his conscience. He was in every sense and 
in every relation and at all times a man as brave and 
self-reliant as ever stood in line of battle or conquered 
in the fiercer struggles of peace. 

My last conversation with him was in the cloakroom 
just before the adjournment of the session June 25, 1910, 
and he did not complain of being ill, but seemed in his 
usual health, although somewhat wearied by the long 
session. He left Washington that night for his home 
and died in New Orleans soon after arriving there, June 
28, 1910. 

Louisiana has lost an ideal citizen, a most faithful and 
eflTicient public otlicer, and the whole country shares in 
that loss. It saddens one to see such men of the old 
school pass away. While in the main I believe the world 
is growing better and progress is being made and devel- 
opment taking place, and men and things becoming more 
complete, perhaps more perfect, still there were some 
qualities peculiar to the times and lives of a generation 
ago which have been diluted rather than stixngthened 
by the commercialism of the present. For instance, the 
polite and chivalrous manners, the deference and devo- 
tion to woman, the value of one's word, indicated by the 
saying, " his word is his bond," and the absence of 
hypocrisy. 

We would do well, in the rush of things these days 
and in the evolution taking place in other directions, 
not to lose sight of these sturdy and beautiful traits of 
character. 

I venture to say that the man can not be found who can 
truthfully assert that Samuel D. McEnery ever deceived 
him or failed to do precisely what he agreed to do. 

Courteous in his bearing and kind and considerate in 
his disposition, he was likewise perfectly open and frank, 
and always sincere. 

[27] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator McEnery 

He never shirked a duty or evaded a responsibility. 
He did what he considered to be right and had no apolo- 
gies to make or explanations to ofTer. He illustrated the 
ancient Greek teaching — " to be rather than to seem " and 
" to do rather than to idle." 

Like Henry Clay, he could say, " I have no commisera- 
tion for princes. My sympathies are reserved for the 
great mass of mankind." And like the great commoner, 
1 imagine he felt " it is the doctrine of thrones that man 
is too ignorant to govern himself." He loved his State 
and people with a devotion rarely equaled, and he de- 
sired to see them prosper. He felt a just pride in the 
Nation and strove to promote the welfare of all. His 
work is written in the history of his State and country. 

As governor, he expressed in his message to tlie legis- 
lature his deep concern regarding the industrial growth 
of Louisiana and the development of her resources, say- 
ing: "We must realize the fact that she is rich and 
force her to the front rank of States." He directed the 
way of her progress by urging legislation regarding 
assessments and taxation, finances, and improvement of 
the levees, and arousing interest in education. On the 
latter subject his message to the legislature took high 
ground to the effect that " the people of this State are 
prepared to approve any legislation that will secure an 
effective system of free elementary instruction." 

Embalmed in sheep, to be preserved for all time, are 
his decisions rendered in the highest court of his State. 
As chief executive, his name and the result of his labors 
will be handed down to succeeding generations. As a 
Member of this body, he wrouglit and placed on the per- 
manent records illustrations of his statesmanship and 
patriotism. So lie is not to be forgotten, and reference 
to his life and work will evoke appreciation of his great 
ability and his exalted character. 

[28] 



Adbkess of Mr. Fletcher, of Florida 

At Kamakura, once the capital of eastern Japan, which 
boasted a population of more than a million in the days 
of its gloiy, the colossal statue of the great Buddha, all 
but 50 feet in height, stands near the sea. The casting 
was begun in 1252. Twice has the temple which inclosed 
it been swept awaj' by a gi'eat tidal wave, the last time 
in 1494. But the great bronze figure still remains 

A statue solid set, 

And molded in colossal calm. 

As a soldier in the Confederate Army under Magruder, 
as a lawyer, as governor, as judge, as United States Sena- 
tor, S.wriEL D. McEnery has built a monument more 
lasting than this — one gratifying to the aspiring soul. 

He has passed beyond our vision. It is a comforting 
thought that — 

There is no end to the sky. 

And the stars are everj'where, 
And time is eternity, 

And here is over there. 



[29] 



Address of Mr. Smoot, of Utah 

Mr. President: We are to-day reminded that almost 
half a score of our colaborcrs, who so recently were in 
our midst, have passed to that — 

Thrice happy world, where gilded toys 

No more disturb our thoughts, no more pollute our joys! 

There light and shade succeed no more by turns, 

There reigns th' eternal sun with an unclouded ray. 

There all is calm as night, yet all immortal day. 

And truth forever shines, and love forever burns. 

The death of Samuel Douglas McEnery, at his home in 
New Orleans, on Tuesday, June 28, 1910, was a great 
shock to his colleagues in this body, yet it was not alto- 
gether unexpected. It had been evident for months that 
his health was failing him, although he was found always 
at work faithfully serving his State and his country. He 
engaged in the deliberations of the Senate up to the 
very day of adjournment, and then returned home to 
enter into immortal sleep. 

A native of Louisiana, educated at the United States 
Naval Academy and the University of Virginia, a grad- 
uate from the State and National Law School at Pough- 
keepsie, N. Y., Senator McEnery obtained a technical 
mental training which well fitted him for the great prob- 
lems which in later life pressed upon him for solution. 
When the Civil War broke out young McEnery had just 
reached his majoi-ity. He enlisted in the Confederate 
Army, serving through the war with marked distinction. 

[30] 



Address of Mr. Smoot. of Utah 



For more than 30 years Senator McEnery had been a 
leader in the political affairs of his State and Nation. 
Through his devotion to duty, his unflinching integrity, 
and his extraordinary ability, he has been honored with 
the high offices of lieutenant governor of Louisiana, gov- 
ernor of Louisiana, associate justice of the supreme court 
of Louisiana, and three time elected to the United States 
Senate. 

Few men in public life have ever exhibited such inde- 
pendence of thought and action and shown such indom- 
itable will to succeed as has Senator McEnery. These 
characteristics accompanied him through life. His atti- 
tude on various questions at different times under con- 
sideration in this body has been the comment of his 
countrymen throughout the United States; but he was 
ever true to his convictions and never hesitated to voice 
them either by word or by action regardless of criticism 
or public opinion. It was his frankness and honesty that 
won for him the profound respect and admiration of 
everyone. He defined his position on any subject with 
freedom, and remained true to it. He was not offensive 
in urging his views upon others, but fought with 
undaunted zeal to gain his point. 

It is fitting and proper on this occasion that we give 
expression to the virtues of those who depart this life 
and to turn our thoughts to the life beyond. It would 
seem cruel, indeed, if the knowledge and the intelligence 
and the good works acquired and accomplished in this 
world of action should pass away forever like a puff of 
wind. There must be something after all in the great 
realms above which to the human mind is too glorious to 
comprehend. It is a very happy thought to contemplate 
the eternal life and progression of the spirit of mortal 
man. It is consoling in death to have a vivid realization 
of a continuation hereafter of association and friendship 

[31] 



Memorial Addhesses: Senator McEnery 

with those whom we so honor and love. Such thoughts 
and such hopes urge us on to nobler deeds and higher 
ideals. 

In Senator McEnery we recognize the student, the law- 
yer, the soldier, the constructive state builder, the jurist, 
and the statesman. A stalwart for the right as he con- 
ceived it, devoted and true to his commissions, fearless 
and courageous, he won the esteem and confidence of 
evei-j'one with whom he came in contact. 

Senator McEnery's life was ripe in usefulness. He 
approached the grave — 

Sustained and soothed 
By an unfaltering trust, 

Like one that wraps the drapery of his couch 
About him and lies down to pleasant dreams. 

His more than threescore years and ten were well 
spent, and to him might justly be applied the plaudit: 

Well done, thou good and faithful servant; enter into thy rest. 



[32] 



I 



Address of Mr. Thornton, of Louisiana 

Mr. President: There is at least one reason why these 
ceremonies affect me in a different manner than they 
affect any other Senator, save, perhaps, one; and that 
reason is the fact that my presence as a Member of this 
body was caused by the death of one of those in whose 
honor these ceremonies are being held. I can not, there- 
fore, on this occasion divest myself of the thought that the 
great gain which has come to me has been at the expense 
of the great loss to his family, to his friends, to his State, 
and to his country' of him to whose seat in this Chamber 
I have succeeded. 

I can not expect during my comparatively short tenure 
of office as a Senator of the United States to equal him in 
point of good service to our common countrj' and State; 
but I can remember his devotion to the interests of both 
as they appeared unto him and, to the best of my ability, 
try to emulate him in the desire for the discharge of duty 
as it appears unto me. In that expression, " The desire for 
the discharge of duty," perhaps can be found the keynote 
of his character, the principle that molded all his public 
actions, his desire to do his duty as he saw it. 

In the first flush of young manhood at the beginning of 
the Civil War, true to his convictions of duty, he volun- 
teered in the Confederate Army and fought to the end of 
that strife for what he considered to be the rights of his 
State and of licr sister States of the South joined with her 
in that conunon cause. At the end of that terrible strife 
he returned to his home and took up the profession of 



93228°— 11- 



[33] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator INIcEnerv 

law as a means of livelihood. During his legal career he 
proved his adherence to his professional duties. In the 
trying times of reconstruction he proved himself faithful 
to the duty of as.sisting in the redemption of his State from 
corruption and misrule, and shortly after the restoration 
of white supremacy in Louisiana he was called by her 
people to discharge the duties of the second highest posi- 
tion in the executive branch of the State government, that 
of lieutenant governor. Then for seven years he filled 
the highest position in that branch, that of governor. 
During his incumbency of those great offices he knew no 
motive in molding his public action higher than the desire 
to serve the interests of the State he loved so well. 

Shortly after his retirement from the office of governor 
he was tendered and accepted the appointment of associate 
justice of the supreme court of Louisiana, and filled that 
position with both honor and ability. It was during his 
incumbency of that office that Louisiana passed through 
the stormiest period of her political history since the days 
of reconstruction — the great antilotterj' fight as it is 
known, the most conspicuous leaders on that side being 
the present Cliief Justice of the United States and the 
present senior Senator from the State of Louisiana [Mr. 
Foster], the latter being the successful candidate for gov- 
ernor in that memorable contest. But though Justice Mc- 
Enery was defeated as the candidate of the lottery forces 
and supported likewise by some who declared themselves 
opposed to the extension of the franchise, which in public 
statements he declared to be his own position, he passed 
through that fierce and bitter political strife without a 
breath of suspicion being directed toward his personal 
integrity. 

In 1896, while still on the supreme bench in Louisiana, 
he was called on by the regular Democratic Party to save 
it from defeat in the senatorial contest then pending in 

[34] 



AnDRESs OF Mr. Thornton, of Louisiana 

the general assembly, and as the only man in Louisiana 
who could save it from defeat at that time. To this call 
of dut^' he responded and was elected and took his seat 
in this body in 1897. 

His public history from that time to the period of his 
death in 1910 is a part of the history of the United States, 
and I may add, of the Nation. How well he discharged 
his duty here to his counti-y and to his State the records 
of the Senate and the testimony of his colleagues therein 
can tell. 

Louisiana has never had and she never will have a 
Senator who loved her better or was more anxious to do 
his duty by her as he understood it. And that duty he 
discharged regardless of criticism or of consequences. 

In private life he may have been not without his faults, 
as other strong characters are not without them; but for 
one I believe that the man who possesses no faults will 
be found to possess not many of the strong virtues. He 
loved his family, his friends, his State, and his country, 
and that is saying much for any man. 

I do not know how 1 can more appropriately close these 
brief remarks concerning him than in the language of 
the governor of Louisiana conveying to the general as- 
sembly of that State the oflicial notification of his death: 

Samuel Douglas McEnery was distinctly a Louisianian; his 
career is interwoven with her liistory, and she never claimed a 
son that had a stronger hold on her affections. 

As a friend he was loyal beyond measure; as a citizen patri- 
otism moved him to action; as a statesman he was a profound 
thinker, broad and liberal in his ideas and determined every 
question by the standard of right and wrong. Fond memories of 
him will ever find an abiding place in the heart of every Louisi- 
anian now living, and future generations will remember him as 
one of Louisiana's sons who never forgot a friend or betrayed a 
trust. 



[35] 



Memobial Addresses: Senator McEnery 

Mr. President, I move, as a further mark of respect to 
the memory of Mr. Daniel and Mr. McEnery, that the 
Senate do now adjourn. 

The motion was unanimously agreed to, and (at 5 
o'clock and 45 minutes p. m.) the Senate adjourned until 
to-morrow, Tuesday, Februarj- 21, 1911, at 12 o'clock 
meridian. 



r3G] 



il 



Proceedings in the House 

December 5, 1910. 

Mr. Ransdell of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, I offer the fol- 
lowing resolution, which 1 send to the Clerk's desk. 
The Clerk read as follows : 

Resolved, That the House has heard with profound sorrow of 
the death of the Hon. Samuel Douglas McEnery, late a Senator of 
the United States from the State of Louisiana. 

Resolved, That the Clerk communicate these resolutions to the 
Senate and send a copy thereof to the family of the deceased 
Senator. 

The resolution was agreed to. 



January 31, 1911. 

Mr. Broussard. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent 
for the present consideration of the following order, which 
I send to the desk and ask to have read. 

The Clerk read as follows: 

Ordered, That Sunday, the 26th day of February, 1911, at 12 
o'clock noon be set apart for addresses on the life, character, and 
public services of Hon. Samuel D. McEnery, late a Senator from 
the State of Louisiana. 

The Speaker. Is there objection? [After a pause.] 
The Chair hears none. The question is on agreeing to the 
order. 

The question was taken, and the order was agreed to. 

[37] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator McEnery 



Sunday, February 26, 1911. 

The House was called to order at 12 o'clock noon by 
the Clerk, Hon. Alexander McDowell. 

The Chaplain, Rev. Henr>' N. Couden, D. D., offered 
the following prayer: 

O Thou who art supremely wise and good, just and 
merciful, pure and holy, our God and our Father, we 
thank Thee that no night of sorrow can obscure the light 
of Thy countenance from those who put their trust in 
Thee. No disappointment so deep, so poignant, that 
Thou canst not turn to hope. Hence we pray most fer- 
vently for those who were bound by the ties of love and 
friendship to the departed statesmen, who strove ear- 
nestly to reflect in their lives and deeds the image of 
their Maker. Grant that the histor\' recorded this day 
may be an inspiration to those who read, to pure motives, 
clean living, and noble endeavor, that, though dead, their 
works may live and bear the fruits of the spirit thus 
reflected in their lives. Help us, we beseech Thee, so to 
live that when we pass to the great beyond we shall be 
missed and cherished by those who knew and loved us, 
and song of praises we will ever give to Thee in the name 
of Him who tauglit us to live well, and when the sum- 
mons comes to pass serenely on with perfect faith and 
confidence in Thee, God, our Father. Amen. 

Mr. Pujo took the chair as Speaker pro tempore. 
Mr. EsTOPiNAL. Mr. Speaker, I offer the following reso- 
lutions, which I send to the desk and ask to have read. 
The Clerk read as follows: 

Resolved. Tlint tlu- House has heard with profound sorrow of 
the death of Hon. .Sa.muel Douglas McEnery, late a Member of 

[38] 



Proceedings in the House 



the United States Senate from the State of Louisiana, which oc- 
curred in the city of New Orleans, La., June 28, 1910. 

Resolved, That the business of the House be now suspended that 
opportunity may be given to pay tribute to his memory. 

Resolved, That as a particular mark of respect to the deceased 
and in recognition of his distinguished public service the House, 
at the conclusion of the memorial exercises of the day, shall stand 
adjourned. 

Resolved, That the Clerk communicate these resolutions to the 
Senate. 

Resolved, That the Clerk send a copy of these resolutions to 
the family of the deceased. 



[39] 



MEMORIAL ADDRESSES 



Address ok Mr. Ransdell, of Louisiana 

Mr. Speaker: It is a melancholy pleasure to pay tribute 
to the memorj' of Senator McEnery, for I loved him in 
life and wish to do all in my power to honor him in death. 
My first vote was cast in 1884 for Sam McEnery, as we 
called him in those days, then a candidate for the exalted 
office of governor of Louisiana, and I voted for him every 
time after that his name was presented to the people. 
He was very popular in north Louisiana, where both of 
us lived, and why not? Had he not been our wise, fear- 
less leader in rescuing Louisiana from the horrors of 
reconstruction and negro domination? Had he not been 
our " levee governor " and the savior of our richest lands 
from the annual floods of the cruel Mississippi? Had he 
not been the active promoter and upbuildcr of our public- 
school system? Indeed, was there anything of good for 
Louisiana in those days, a quarter of a century ago, which 
was not closely allied with the name of Sam McEnery? 

I doubt if any other citizen of the State was ever so 
popular, and I am sure that no one ever retained such a 
strong hold upon the affections of his people to the day 
of his death as Senator McEnery. 

It was universally admitted during recent years that no 
matter what he said or how he voted it was all riglit 
with the people of Louisiana, and no man iu the State 

[41] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator McEnery 

would have dreamed of opposing him for the Senate. 
Such continued popularity can be accounted for only by 
the fact that the Senator was a most remarkable man; 
liberally endowed in mind and heart; unselfish and gen- 
erous to a fault; never forgetting a friend and bearing 
no undue malice to foes; wise in plan and bold in execu- 
tion; a good governor, alive to every interest of his State; 
a great justice of our supreme court; a United States 
Senator for everyone, and as solicitous for the poorest 
citizen as for the most influential; a simple, unassuming, 
modest gentleman, honest and true, who never used his 
great abilities for an unworthy purpose in all his long 
life of 73 years, but ever devoted them to promoting the 
welfare of Louisiana. 

Samuel Douglas McEnery was born at Monroe, La., 
May 28, 1837, and died in New Orleans June 28, 1910. His 
parents were Henry O'Neil McEnery, a native of Ireland, 
and Caroline H. (Douglas) McEner\% of Virginia. His 
early education was at the Jesuit College, Springhill, Ala.; 
then for three years as a midshipman at Annapolis, from 
May 25, 1852, to June 23, 1855, when he resigned; and 
later at the University of Virginia. He studied law at the 
State and National Law School, Poughkeepsie, N. Y., and 
after being admitted to the bar practiced for one year at 
Maryville, Mo. Returning to Louisiana shortly before 
the Civil War, he enlisted in the Confederate Army and 
served as a lieutenant of the Pelican Grays, Second 
Louisiana Regiment, under Gen. Magruder, in Virginia, 
and also in the trans-Mississippi department. 

Senator McEnery's first prominence in public life was 
as a leader of the Democrats in Ouachita Parish during 
the darkest days of reconstruction, when he disjjlayed 
such able qualities as an organizer against the corruption 
and misrule of carpetbagism, with its attendant racial 
horrors, that he soon became recognized as the foremost 

[42] 



« 



Address of Mr. Ransdell, of Louisiana 

citizen of north Louisiana. In the State Democratic con- 
vention of 1879 he was nominated for lieutenant gover- 
nor, as running mate to Louis A. Wiltz, candidate for 
governor. Thej' were elected, and on the death of Gov. 
Wiltz, in October, 1881, McEnery became governor. 

So successful was his administration that he was nomi- 
nated and reelected in 1884 for a term of four years. In 
1888 he was again a candidate, but was defeated by that 
grand old hero of the lost cause. Gen. Francis T. Nicholls, 
who had been governor prior to the selection of Wiltz. 
In such high esteem was McEnery held bj' his successful 
opponent that he was immediately appointed by him a 
justice of the supreme court of the State. I recollect well 
the criticism of many lawyers at the time, who said that 
while he was an able man and had made a good governor 
he was not sufTiciently versed in the law to make a good 
judge. Their opinions changed, however, for within one 
year McEnery was regarded as one of the ablest jurists 
in the State, his decisions being noted for brevity, clear- 
ness, and correct analysis. The admirers of Judge 
McEnery insisted upon his again running for governor 
in the antilotteiy campaign of 1892, and after a vigorous 
fight he was defeated by Murphy J. Foster, later his col- 
league and intimate friend in the Senate. This campaign 
did not take McEnery from the supreme bench, and in 
1896, after Gov. Foster had been reelected in a hard- 
fought struggle, McEnery's former foes in the Demo- 
cratic Party implored him to leave the shades of judicial 
life and again enter tlie political arena in opposition to 
Walter D. Denegi-e, who was supported for the United 
States Senate by Republicans, the Citizens' League, Popu- 
lists, and all foes of the State administration. It was a 
trying hour for the partj^ and no man in the State could 
save it except McEnery. He responded to the call then, 
as he had ever done, and was elected to the Senate by a 

[43] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator McEnery 

slender majority. So well pleased were the people of 
Louisiana with his stewardship in this great office that 
they reelected him in 1902 and again in 1908. 

From the day of Senator McEnery's election as lieu- 
tenant governor, in the fall of 1879, to his death, June 28, 
1910, over a period of more than 30 years, he continuously 
held the highest offices in the gift of the people of 
Louisiana with the greatest credit to himself and honor 
and profit to his State. Few men have such a record as 
that. 

Senator McEnery was married June 27, 1878, to Miss 
Elizabeth Phillips, daughter of Charles Phillips, a promi- 
nent planter of Ouachita Parish. His home life was 
happy, four children being born of the union, three of 
whom survive him — Charles P. McEnery, an insurance 
man of New Orleans; Dr. Douglas W. McEnery, who was 
his father's secretary for some years; and Mrs. Warren B, 
Parks. 

While Senator McEnery is well remembered and loved 
for many measures of his administrations as governor, 
the one which gave him the most fame and was of 
greatest benefit to Louisiana was his splendid service in 
rescuing the lowlands of the State from the floods of 
the Mississippi. He became known as the " levee gov- 
ernor," and when one considers that nearly half the area 
and more tlian two-tliirds of the wealth of Louisiana are 
guarded by levees from overflow it will be seen how 
complimentary was such a title and in what high esteem 
it would be held by its possessor. I can not better de- 
scribe his work in connection with these great public 
improvements than by quoting from an article that ap- 
peared in the Times-Democrat of New Orleans in 1887, 
entitled "The levee governor: " 

Gov. McEneiiv succeeded to the governorsliip on the death of 
Gov. Wiltz, on the 17th of October, 1881. Owing to the fact that 

[44] 



Address of Mh. Ransdell, of Louisiana 

the appropriations by the legislature had largely exceeded the 
revenues, the financial affairs of the State were in such condition 
that a special session of the general assembly became necessary. 
Accordingly, Gov. McEnery called it together December 5. In 
his message to that body thus early in his administration he 
showed his solicitude toward the levee interests of the State, and 
insisted that the full amount allowed by the constitution (1 mill) 
should be appropriated' by the legislature for levee purposes, in 
addition to so much of the swamp-land and drainage fund as 
was not needed to maintain the office of register of State lands. 

This policy in favor of the construction and maintenance of 
the levees so early inaugurated has been steadily followed to 
the present time, with what benefits to the State let the record 
show. Before the policy could be fairly put in operation (levee 
building for the season being practically at an end, owing to the 
rise of the river, when Gov. McEnery assumed the gubernatorial 
chair) the great flood of 1882 came upon the Slate, causing wide- 
spread disaster and a direct money loss in crops destroyed, stock 
drowned, farms washed away, and so forth, of not less than 
$15,000,000, thus abundantly justifying the governor's position 
that every available dollar that the State could raise for the pur- 
pose should be devoted to building and strengthening the levees. 
The governor was prompt to come to the relief of the sufferers 
by the flood, and although there was no relief fund available, he 
did not hesitate to contract obligations for food and other relief 
for the unfortunates. His action met the universal approval of 
the people, and was promptly ratified by the legislature when the 
body met in May. 

The flood had not entirely passed from the State, leaving wide- 
spread desolation and ruin in its track, when the legislature 
assembled. In his message the governor again strongly urged 
the necessities of the levees, and insisted that it was the duty of 
the General Government to come to the assistance of the State in 
the matter, holding that it was a case in which favorable action 
on the part of Congress was not only justified, but imperative. 

However, Gov. McEnery did not wait for Federal aid. He 
recognized that the surest Iielp was self-help, and bent every 
energy to rebuild the broken levees and put tliem in order for the 
high water of 1883. He succeeded measurably, but the flood of 
1882 had been so destructive, sweeping away hundreds of miles 
of levees, that the full accomplishment of the vvork was impossible 

[45] 



Memoiu.\l Addresses: Senator McEnery 

with the limited means at command. The flood of 1883 came, 
and, although less disastrous than the one that had preceded it, 
proved very destructive, and caused those who saw their jiroperty 
again swept away to despair of relief from the invading waters. 
Gov. McENEnv, however, was only nerved to greater efforts to 
rebuild the levees and avert from the State the disastrous conse- 
quences of overflow. He saw that what was to be done must be 
done quickly in order to take advantage of the levee-building 
season. He also saw that the funds at command of the State were 
entirely inadequate to the purpose in view. What was to be 
done? The legislature would not meet in regular session for a 
year, and there was a strong popular sentiment against a special 
session. In this emergency the governor determined to appeal 
to the people themselves. He therefore issued a call for a con- 
vention to meet at Baton Rouge June 18, 1883, and to be com- 
posed of delegates selected by the various police juries and the 
city council of New Orleans. The object of the convention, as 
announced in the call, was "' the maintaining, repairing, and build- 
ing of levees; the inauguration of a practical system to prevent 
and close crevasses; the adoption of a plan to prevent the cutting 
of levees for roadways and the use of them for highways; and 
in the means to be employed for this improvement of the navi- 
gation of the Mississippi River." 

The convention, famous as the levee convention, met at the time 
appointed. It was composed of the representative men of the 
State, its personnel possessing an influence such as has been 
wielded by the membership of few bodies in the State. The 
moral support of such a body of men meant the moral support of 
the entire State, and this support was freely and unhesitatingly 
tendered the governor in the emergency which had called the 
convention into life. 

The convention fully justified the wisdom of the governor in 
calling it. It infused new confidence in the dwellers on ripa- 
rian lands, held up Gov. McEnkrv's hands in the good work he 
had set them to do, and unloosened the purse strings of police 
juries and private individuals to such an extent that the adminis- 
tration was enabled to proceed with energy with what had seemed 
an almost hopeless task. So vigorously was the work pushed, in 
fact, that when the annual rise of the river came in 1884 the 
levees were found in condition to resist the flood and keep in 

[46] 



Address of Mr. Ransdell, of Lofisiana 



safety the thousands of people and millions of properly sheltered 
behind them. 

This was not the only beneficial result that flowed from the 
levee convention. Following the request of the convention, Gov. 
McEnf,ry invited the governors of the States of Mississippi, 
Arkansas, Missouri, Tennessee, and Illinois to the proposed inter- 
state convention at Vicksburg. The invitation was accepted and 
the convention met. Its deliberations were fruitful of the best 
results. It brought about unity of action on the part of the 
States subject to overflow and protected by levees, and a deter- 
mination to make a united demand upon the Federal authorities 
for aid in holding the levees and improving the navigation of 
the Mississippi River. 

Thus to Gov. McEnery's initiative is Louisiana largely indebted, 
not only for the interest manifested in levee matters in the State 
itself, but for Federal assistance in the work of maintaining and 
rebuilding them. 

Of the work itself. Gov. McEnery reported as follows to the 
legislature (message. May 4, 1884) : 

" Since the report made to the general assembly in April, 1882, 
120 contracts for the construction of levees have been made, and 
nearly all of them have been faithfully executed. The work 
done under these contracts and the unfinished work under prior 
contracts not completed in April, 1882, amounts to nearly 130 
miles of levee, requiring 3,699,636 cubic yards of earthwork at 
a cost of .f887,970. The Stale during the same period expended 
for preventing or closing crevasses $35,500, making an aggregate 
cost of levee work for the period of $923,470. 

"The United States Mississippi River Commission in .\ugust, 
1882, allotted •'!!75,000 to close gaps in levees between the mouth 
of Red River and Cypress Creek, and .$110,000 to close gaps in 
Pointe Coupee, all for levees in Louisiana, except $65,283, which 
was expended for levee work in Arkansas. The sum of $15,000 
was likewise allotted toward building the Ronnet Carre Levee, 
and other allotments were made for the protection of levees dur- 
ing the late flood. 

" The levee work in Louisiana by the United States commis- 
sion nearly equals that done by the State, being mainly above the 
mouth of Red River, and it has cost the United States Govern- 
ment $8,39,381. 



[47] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator McEnery 

"The riparian parishes expended on levees since 1881 large 
sums, reports from 10 parishes alone showing •'?211,1G6 of local 
and individual funds expended. Three railroad companies alone 
expended $99,450. Thus the total amount expended on levees in 
Louisiana has been ^2,048,000 since 1881." 

Notwithstanding the fact that in 1883 some of the riparian 
parishes were subject to another overflow, owing to the fact that 
many of the levees that went down before the flood of the pre- 
ceding year had not been rebuilt or were not sufliciently 
hardened to withstand the rise of 1883, Gov. McEnery was fully 
justified by the fact in adding: " In the beginning of March, 1884, 
the levees of Louisiana were in better condition than they have 
been at any previous time for more than 20 years." With such 
energy had the work of rebuilding the levees and repairing the 
■waste created by the waters been prosecuted in the meantime, 
and so energetically and systematically has the work of levee 
strengthening and building been continued, that the floods since 
1883 have been successfully resisted (rare local crevasses ex- 
cepted), and the people of the riparian parishes have been able 
to sow and reap behind the dikes erect'-d for their protection, in 
full confidence that they would withstand the pressure of the 
waters. Lands abandoned for a quarter of a century have again 
been brought into cultivation, values in riparian parishes have 
increased, and prosperity is again within reach of the dweller 
by the banks of the rivers. 

I live in East Carroll Parish, one of the worst overflow 
sections of the State, and was there during the period of 
Gov. McEnery's great light for the levees. I therefore 
know personally that this account is not overdrawn and 
does not give him more credit than he really deserves. 
The fight, so well begun then, has been systematically 
carried on ever since in splendid cooperation between 
the several States of the valley and the United States Gov- 
ernment. Many millions have been spent: and a great 
system of levees, continuous, except at the mouths of 
rivers emptying into the Mississippi, exists from Cairo to 
the Gulf. And the awful floods which did untold damage 
during the early eighties now beat frantically hut in vain 

[48] 



Address of Mr. Ransdell, of Louisiana 

against the splendid levees begun by our " levee gov- 
ernor." 

Senator McEnery, while a very close attendant on the 
sessions of the Senate and scrupulous in his attention to 
every detail connected with his great office, never neglect- 
ing anything, even of the least importance, rarely ever 
addressed the Senate, and then only after careful prepa- 
ration, in the choicest of language. His three principal 
addresses before that august tribunal were as follows : 

1. In opposition to the annexation of Hawaii, June 24, 
1898, in whicli this noble sentiment was expressed: 

The dignity, character, and strength of nations, as of men, and 
especially of a republic, depend, in the eyes of the world and of 
its own people, upon a rigid observance of justice and right, and 
it should refuse to embrace a policy of aggrandizement, espe- 
cially where the people to be affected are not consulted. 

2. In defense of the sufl"rage clause of the Louisiana 
constitution of 1898, delivered January 23, 1900. This 
speech was a vigorous, able description of the trying 
times of reconstruction and the desperate attempts of 
the whites to redeem their States from negro domina- 
tion and misrule. While he spoke he was interrupted 
by Senator Butler, of North Carolina, who taunted him 
on the grandfather clause, and in reply he uttered these 
eloquent words : 

When the constitutional convention was in session I was tele- 
graphed to know what was my opinion of this section 5. I 
replied to that telegram that, in ray opinion, it was unconstitu- 
tional. I then received another telegram, after its adoption, to 
know if, when it was attacked, I would defend it in the Senate 
of the United States. To that telegram I replied that I would. 

I stand, Mr. President, always ready to defend the people of 
Louisiana when their character is attacked. I stand ready to 
defend them when their interests are in peril. I stand ready 
to defend them when their laws are assailed. 

93228°— 11 4 [49] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator McEnery 

It is the same way, Mr. President, in reference to my duty to 
the Government of the United States in regard to the war that 
is now being waged in the Philippine Islands. I do not stop to 
inquire whether the people of the United States are right or 
wrong. I do not stop to inquire whether or not the first volley 
was fired by the Filipinos or by the troops of the United States. 
It is enough for me to know that the authority and power of this 
Government is assailed, and that it is the duty of every citizen, 
no matter what were his convictions, to rally to the support of 
the Government, not only to send its ships abroad and its armies 
upon the field and to supply money and munitions of war, but 
with our great sympathy and whole will and heart to stand by 
the President of the United States and uphold his hand until the 
enemies of this Government are brought under subjection. That 
same motive, Mr. President, induces me to defend to the best of 
my ability the constitution of the State of Louisiana when it is 
assailed. 

But, Mr. President, although that was my opinion at that time, 
I have since studied the question more carefully, and I hope the 
reasons which I assign are a sufTicient justification for that change 
of opinion. 

3. A verj' elaborate, historical argument on the tariff 
during the debates on the Payne-Aldrich bill. May 25, 
1909, in which he sought to show the interest of the South, 
especially Louisiana, in the policy of protection and to 
prove that the early fathers of Democracy were believers 
in protection. This speech and his vole on the bill, 
together with his vote on the Dingley Tariff Act of 1897, 
stamp him as a strong protectionist. He never sailed 
under false colors, however, in seeking office, but, on the 
contrary, unequivocally stated to the legislative caucus 
which elected him Senator in 1896 that he believed in 
the principle of protection and would carry out his own 
ideas thereon if elected. His views on the subject never 
changed, and he was perfectly consistent and honest in 
trying to enforce them. 



[50] 



Address of Mr. Ransdell, of Loiisiana 



The leading characteristics of Senator McEnery were 
loyalty to his friends and utter unselfishness. He was 
always willing to accommodate his Louisiana colleagues, 
and under no circumstances did he ever fail to comply 
with a promise. No detail was too small for his personal 
attention. I sometimes thought that he had a special 
genius for detail, and to that 1 attrihute much of his 
success. His relations with his brother Senators were 
most cordial, and ever>' one of them would do his utmost 
to accommodate him. 

Senator McEnery died full of years and honors, uni- 
versally loved by all who knew him, and so strong in 
the aifections of his own people as to be above the 
slightest danger of political rivalry-. One of his most 
beautiful attributes was his kindness to and considera- 
tion for the poor. Only a few days ago a laboring man, 
with the giime of dust on his clothes, visited his home in 
Nev.- Orleans, saying, with tears in his eyes: "I want to 
see the place where Mr. McEnery was laid out. He was 
the best friend I ever had." There are hundreds just 
like this man, for Samuel Douglas McEnery was the 
friend of the poor. What higher tribute could have 
been paid him than the simple words of this poor 
laborer? 

Mr. Speaker, his fame is safe in that world beyond the 
skies which knows no change. His memoiy will live for- 
ever in the State and Nation he served so well, and with 
one accord all who knew him may exclaim: 

His life was gentle, and the elements 

So niix'd in him that Nature might stand up 

And say to all the world: " This was a man! " 



[51] 



Address of Mr. Gordon, of Tennessee 

Mr. Speaker: We hold it one of the noblest duties of 
the living to signalize and perpetuate the virtues and 
memories of the dead. And in obedience to this sacred 
sentiment we are assembled here, this beautiful Sabbath 
day, to pronounce and record our brief tributes of ad- 
miration and respect for the character and career of our 
departed and lamented colleague, the Hon. Samuel D. 
McEnery, late United States Senator from the State of 
Louisiana; who, in the seventy-fourth j'ear of his age, and 
on June 28, 1910, " gave his honors to the world again, 
his blessed part to heaven, and slept in peace." 

A brief year ago it was pathetic to observe him amid the 
scenes that surround us to-day passing to and fro from 
his duties in the Senate Chamber of this edifice, moving 
carefully and cautiously as if his powers were failing 
and he were then tottering slowly down to life's last rest- 
ing place. And yet, while this was pathetic in one sense, 
nevertheless, Mr. Speaker, it is a sublime spectacle to see 
an aged man, with trembling step and his white hair 
streaming to the breeze, still bravely stemming the rude 
stream of life as it beats him from side to side, till at last 
exhausted he folds his arms and sinks beneath the ruth- 
less waters. And so Senator McEnery died as he had 
lived, in the harness and at tlie wheel. He fell as it 
becomes a statesman and a soldier to fall, at the front 
and in the battle. He did his duty, and he did it well. 

Senator McEnery was a native of Louisiana; was an 
alumnus of Spring Hill College, Alabama; of the Uni- 

[521 



Address of Mr. (Wirdon, of Tennessee 



versity of Virginia, and of the United States Naval Acad- 
emy at Annapolis, Md. He was a graduate of the State 
and National Law School of Poughkeepsie, N. Y., and was 
engaged in the practice of the legal profession till the 
stirring times of 1861, when he closed his law hooks and 
hurried to the tented field. How well some of us still 
remember those wild, thrilling days, when the war crj- 
was heard in our land, " To your tents, O Israel, to your 
tents!" when the drum and the bugle were heard upon 
almost even' hill and in every dale, on every mountain 
and in eveiw vale, from Canada to the Cudf of Mexico, 
and from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, calling the 
people to arms. Two mighty hostile hosts are now pre- 
paring for a conflict that is to convulse the continent and 
astound the world. A new flag is unfurled on the land, 
and a new pennant now floats on the sea. In the ensuing 
crisis our colleague cast his destiny with that of his own 
people and for four booming and blazing years battled 
bravely for the cause for which Davis suftVred in prison, 
for which Lee and Forrest fought, and for which Johnston 
and Jackson died. 

Our comrade did not attain high rank as a soldier, 
being only a first lieutenant at the close of the war. But 
mere rank, however, off"ers no adequate measure of one's 
efficiency as a soldier or of his force and fire as a man. 
Merit is modest and often unambitious, and many are 
content to do their duty without the reward of laurels, 
titles, or decorations. And it is worthy of remark that 
there were hundreds of soldiers in the southern armies, 
and I suppose also in the northern armies, during our in- 
terstate war nf tlie sixties wlio were highly educated and 
professional men but who did not aspire to positions of 
rank or authority, but who, in the absence of their officers 
and in sudden emergencies, were often leaders and com- 
manders unto themselves. And this is why the volunteer 

[531 



Memohial Addresses: Senator McEner's 

private soldiers of the American Armies from 1801 to 
1865 displayed a higher degree of martial individuality 
and intelligent efficiency than the world had ever before 
or has since witnessed in soldiers of the line. Many col- 
lege and university graduates fought through the war 
with only the rank of private soldiers, and have since 
attained to positions of high civic distinction, having 
become consuls and ministers, judges and governors. Con- 
gressmen and Senators. The late Thomas B. Turley, 
United States Senator from Tennessee, was only a private 
soldier in the Confederate Army, and afterwards became 
an eminent lawyer and jurist. What other nation has 
furnished literati and authors, philosophers and scien- 
tists, advocates and jurists, orators and statesmen, law- 
givers and civic rulers from the private ranks of its dis- 
banded armies? This is an exceptional distinction and 
belongs to our land alone. So that Senator McEnerv was 
one among many of our able and eminent men after the 
war who did not attain high military' rank during our 
great American conflict. 

But he appears preeminently upon the scene during the 
dark and dreary days of "reconstruction." For 10 long, 
weary, and perilous years after the war, during which 
the government of some of the Southern States was prac- 
tically a congressional oligarchy and a military des- 
potism, our colleague took an active, conspicuous, and 
eflVctive part in the memorable struggle of the white 
people of Louisiana to maintain their racial supremacy 
and to preserve the white man's civilization. This was at 
last accomplished, but not fully, until President Hayes 
drew the bayonet from the breast of Louisiana. The 
ability, courage, and determination displayed by Senator 
McEnery, then a private citizen, during this stirring and 
stormy period are matters of history and need not be 
elaborated here. Suffice it to sav that "he was a tower 



[541 



Address of Mr. Gordon, of Tennessee 

of strength in the time of trouble." And when peace and 
tranquillity had been restored to his long-suffering people, 
they remembered and honored him by making him twice 
their governor. And when he was elected to the United 
States Senate, in 1896, a public-spirited and prominent 
citizen of the State, Mr. Percy Roberts, wrote to his wife 
as follows: "The Lord God still lives and reigns! 
McEnery is Senator by a vote of 70 to 64. That is good 
enough for one day." This fervid ejaculation, doubtless 
the expression of a popular sentiment, of itself alone 
implies a splendid eulogy on the ability and character of 
our departed associate, and is doubly significant as com- 
ing from one who was by his side and knew him best " in 
the days that tried men's souls." 

Finally, our distinguished countryman served the peo- 
ple of his State two full terms in the United States Senate 
and was serving his third term when he laid down his 
arms and " slept with his fathers." 



[55] 



Address of Mr. Burgess, of Texas 

Mr. Speaker: Louisiana has a unique and splendid 
history, and no man of his time is so interwoven witli 
that history as is Samuel Douglas McEnery. He was 
born in Louisiana on May 28, 1837, and his liistory is 
comprised in tlie history of the State from that date 
until the day of his death. 

He was elected first lieutenant and went into the Civil 
War, and made a good soldier. He was elected lieuten- 
ant governor with L. A. Wiltz, and at the death of Gov. 
Wiltz succeeded him as governor. In a contest for a 
renomination he was defeated by his comrade in arms 
Gov. Francis P. Nicholls, and so much were they attached 
to each other that Gov. Nicholls appointed McEnery on 
the supreme bench, from which he was elected to the 
Senate, and was reelected until his death. 

It was my strange and peculiar good fortune to feel 
that I knew this good man intimately before I had ever 
met him. This was due to the fact that I married a La- 
fourche girl and visited tlie Lafourche neighborhood 
very frequently. That was the home of Gov. Nicholls, 
and NichoUs's name and McEnery's name were linked 
together tliere in the minds of all tlic old settlers, and I 
felt tiiat I knew McEnekv by mingling with those people 
and hearing tluni speak of him and talk about him, and 
when I came to Congress I met him here. I found in 
him Iicre tlie same qualities that I had conceived him to 
possess from what the people had said of him generally. 

McEnery was perhaps not a great orator, not a great 
statesman, but he was a man great in character. As 

[56] 



Address or Mis. Burgess, of Texas 



Ingersoll said of Roscoc Conkling, he " walked the high- 
way of his own will and he kept the company of his 
self-respect." All through McEnery's life this is brought 
out plainly : He walked tlie highway of his own will, and 
of course he kept the company of his self-respect and 
all others' respect. He was a gentleman, a kindly man, 
and disposed to do everything and anytliing that re- 
dounded to Louisiana's gloi-y as a State. I would, if I 
had time, and opportunity afforded, speak of the glories 
of Louisiana. But lime will forbid tluit. It is enough to 
say of this man that he was true in every relation of life. 
He seemed to I.avc a devotion to truth that knew no 
vacillation, that knew no change. For him to conceive 
that a thing was right was for him to form an opinion at 
once and go straight ahead. He seemed to have been 
molded on David Crockett's homely motto, " Be sure you 
are right, and then go ahead." As a statesman, as a 
jurist, as a soldier, he shines in this respect more than 
in all others. 

.\nd now, that we have come to pay this feeble tribute 
to his memory, he is gone. The places that knew him 
will know him no more. But he left behind him as a 
tribute to the young men of the land, to his wife, family, 
and friends, his rich heritage of a good name and a life 
well spent. He did not leave any great riches, but he left 
that much, and no man can leave a nobler heritage to 
his wife, his family, and his friends than the heritage 
of a clean, pure life devoted to duty. 



[57] 



Address of Mr. Madden, of Illinois 

Mr. Speaker: Four times during this Congress God 
has seen fit to call home one of Louisiana's illustrious 
statesmen; four times have we lost, in each of these, a 
true friend and a noble citizen. To-day in Congress 
assembled we endeavor in our humble way to show our 
appreciation of the worth of the latest of these; to speak 
outwardly thoughts which have for jears been present 
in the minds of many of us. 

On the 28th day of June, 1910, at the venerable age of 
73, the Hon. Samuel D. McEnery died. In his life he was 
an amiable, unselfish, sincere friend; an honest, upright 
citizen; and an able, distinguished Senator. In his death 
we have lost an invaluable life. Few men have won for 
themselves more love and respect than this worthy 
brother of ours; few men have more deserved the hom- 
age of the Nation. 

Mr. McEnery had an eventful life, and an education 
which not only surpassed that of our average citizen, but 
compares well with the highest erudition in our land. 
His knowledge, acquired from books, from professors, 
from eminent associates, and from close observation of 
the various things around him into contact with which 
his services as a soldier and a public man brought him, 
was of that practical, wise, and fruitful sort that has made 
our country' what it is. Few men are so constituted that 
they can be scliolarly, professional, practical, successful 



[58] 



Address of Mr. Madden, of Illinois 



in business, exalted and yet sympathetic, kind, unselfisli, 
and humble — mixing with the great masses of people with 
a brotherly love and affection, going among them with 
that kindly spirit which makes all — 

Grapple them to their hearts with hoops of steel. 

Ah, his was a beautiful life! 

In the Senate and in the House of Representatives there 
are Members, each going about his duty as of old, laugh- 
ing, chatting, working, thinking. 

But yet I know where'er I go. 

That there has passed away a glory from the earth. 

I feel that one of the best of us has responded to Stern 
Ruin's call. It saddens me at times when I see one by 
one noble, generous lives taken from among us, when I 
miss them in the customed place, when I cease to hear 
the well-known voice, or to receive the hearty hand- 
shake — it saddens me when I reflect that all 

Await alike the inevitable hour. 

The paths of glory lead but to the grave. 

But the sadness gradually merges into thoughtfulness, 
and then, thank God, I realize, with a rush of joyous 
feeling. 

That our death is but a sleep and a forgetting, 
* • • • * 

Trailing clouds of glory, do we come 
From God, who is our home. 

, And when I consider this man's merits, his courfesy 
and kindness, his nobility of character, his patriotisnL 
his love and gentle sympathy, and fondly feel the soft 

[59] 



Memorial Addresses : Senator McEnery 

atmosphere of his influence about nie, I again find com- 
fort in Wordsworth — 

What though the radiance which was once so bright 
Be now forever taken from my sight, 

* * * * » 

We will grieve not, rather find 

Strength in what remains behind; 

In the primal sympathy 

Which having been must ever be; 

In tlie soothing thoughts that spring 

Out of human sufl'ering; 

In the fait); tl'.at looks through death. 

Mr. McEnery received his broad education at various 
leading institutions in this country — at Spring Hill Col- 
lege, near Mobile, Ala.; at the United States Naval Acad- 
emy; at the University of Virginia; and, finally, at the 
National Law School in Poughkeepsie, N. Y., where he 
acquired a profound knowledge in the profession which 
he afterwards adopted. It was a wide range over which 
he swept to gain this learning, but it was not a mere 
vague, frivolous flight, from which he emerged with a 
smattering of its fruit; it was a patient, toiling course, 
which built up a firm foundation worthy to sustain in 
after life the noble character, the distinguished man, the 
exalted statesman. 

I stand before you to-day with love and honor for the 
memory of the late Senator. He was a man worthy to be 
honored by men. He was one of us. He lived as we live, 
had the same temptations as we have, stumbling a little, 
perhaps, over tlie roughest places, which only made him 
the more human, brought him nearer to our hearts, and 
emboldened us to place in liim our love and trust. 

A creature not too bright or good 

For human nature's daily food; 

For transient sorrows, simple wiles, 

Praise, blame, love, kisses, tears, and smiles. 

[60] 



Address of Mr. Madden, of Illinois 



He was a typical southern gentleman, genial, open- 
hearted, and courteous, endearing himself to all with 
whom he came in contact, thus acquiring an extensive 
acquaintance among all classes of people, and leaving 
behind him mourners without number. 

Large was his bounty and his soul sincere. 

Such is the way of life that this great man will perhaps 
in a few weeks cease to be missed by his fellow Senators 
and Representatives, from whom he won such high 
esteem during the long term of his service, but he will 
never be forgotten by them and will always be thought 
of with a lingering fondness and remembered as a glori- 
ous type of manhood. 

I will no further seek his merits to disclose, for in my 
humble way I can not do such a great man justice. I 
leave the details for those of you who are more able than 
I. I merel}' wish to join with you, to join with Louisiana, 
to join with the Nation in paying tribute to the loved and 
honored memory of Senator Samuel D. McEnery, and to 
extend to his sorrowing friends and relatives my deepest 
condolence and sincere sympathy. 



[61] 



Address of Mr. Broussard, of Louisiana 

Mr. Speaker: Samuel Douglas McEnery was born in 
Monroe, La., May 28, 1837. His father, a native of Ire- 
land, moved to this country when a boy and settled at 
Petersburg, Va., where he married. After living there 
awhile he moved to Louisiana, residing first in More- 
house Parish and then in Ouachita, where he became a 
cotton planter. In politics he was a Whig, but later, 
during Know-Nothingism in Louisiana, he became a 
Democrat. Senator McEnery's uncle, for whom he was 
named, was appointed a judge on the Federal bench of 
Florida by President Tyler, and after the Civil War 
became a member of the supreme court of that State. 
John McEnery, a brother of the deceased Senator, was 
elected governor of the State of Louisiana on the Demo- 
cratic ticket in 1872, but on account of the intervention 
of Federal troops, called by Gov. Kellogg, he was pre- 
vented from taking his seat. 

Senator McEnery was educated at Spring Hill College, 
near Mobile, Ala., and was afterwards appointed a mid- 
shipman in the United States Naval Academy at Annap- 
olis, where he completed his course, but after a two 
years' cruise resigned before his graduation. From there 
he went to the University of Virginia, where he remained 
until the death of his father in 18.57. He then matricu- 
lated in the Law College of Poughkeepsie, N. Y., and 
from that institution he was graduated in 1859. After 
graduation lie went to Maryville, Mo., where he prac- 

[62] 



Address of Mr. Broussard, of Loiisiana 

liced law until the outbreak of the war between the 
States, when he at once returned to Louisiana. 

At the outset of the war he helped to organize the 
Pelican Grays and was made first lieutenant of that com- 
mand, which subsequently became a part of the Second 
Louisiana Regiment. That regiment immediately went 
to the front and with it he remained until its reorganiza- 
tion. He then helped to organize a company which 
formed part of Logan's battery of heavy artillerj' and 
was assigned to duty in the trans-Mississippi department. 

At the termination of the war he returned to the parish 
of Ouachita to realize that the fortune of his family had 
been blasted by war. Thus impoverished, he resumed 
the duties of private life and became a school-teacher, 
and while so engaged studied the civil law in order to 
prepare himself for admission to the Louisiana bar, 
where the amended Code Napoleon at that time was, 
as it still is, in force. 

He successfully passed his examination and was ad- 
milted in 1867 to the bar of the State of Louisiana, prac- 
ticing in the hill parishes of north Louisiana. 

Scarcely had the young soldier entered into the prac- 
tice of his profession in Louisiana than he was brought 
to a full realization that reconstruction laws overwhelmed 
the people of his State, as they overwhelmed at that time 
the people of other States of the South. McEnery had 
become well known and well beloved throughout north 
Louisiana, and by his magnetism, his faculty for making 
friends, his devotion to duty, his training as a soldiei", and 
his patriotism, he was well equipped indeed to take an 
effective part in the contest between righteousness and 
debauchery, oppression and good government, barbarism 
and white supremacy. He was a strong and active figure 
in ever}' one of those movements which after many years 
of struggle resulted in the annihilation of radicalism and 

[63] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator McEnerv 

carpetbagisni in Louisiana and placing the government 
of that State into the hands of the white people. 

In 1876 McEnery rallied the people of north Louisiana 
to the support of Gen. Francis Tillou NichoUs, the 
maimed hero of many battles during the Civil War, who 
was the Democratic nominee for governor, and McEnerv 
was, to a great extent, responsible for the success of his 
candidacy. The election of Gov. NichoUs was the termi- 
nation of a long-drawn contest by which the people of 
Louisiana reentered into their own. This patriot and 
liero is still living, having added to his service to his 
country during the Civil War services equally if not 
more valuable in the position of governor, chief justice, 
and associate justice of the supreme court of Louisiana, 
from which last office he has, on account of his old age, 
recently resigned, and in his retirement is presently 
enjoying the remaining years of his life in well-earned 
rest. 

After the election of Gov. NichoUs in 1876 the United 
States Senate sent an investigating committee to Louisi- 
ana to investigate that election. Chief Justice E. D. White, 
of the Supreme Court of the United States, than whom 
Louisiana has produced no greater man; E. B. Krutt- 
schnitt, unfortunately taken from us in the prime of his 
usefulness, a man of remarkable legal acumen, unblem- 
ished character, and of a high order of patriotism, nephew 
of that former brilliant Senator from Louisiana, the 
lamented Judah P. Benjamin, who, after retiring from 
the Senate, occupied several otfices in the Confederate 
cabinet under Mr. Davis; and Samuel Douglas McEnerv 
represented the Democratic Party in that investigation. 
Its result failed to disturb the seat of NichoUs as governor 
of Louisiana. 

The new constitution adopted in 1879 by the white 
people of Louisiana to supplant that of 1868, enacted by 

[64] 



I 



Address of Mr. Broussard, of Louisiana 



the carpetbaggers and negroes, made it necessary to elect 
another governor. Louis Alfred Wiltz, a man of wonder- 
ful attainments, well versed in the affairs of our State, 
with considerable experience acquired as mayor of the 
city of New Orleans, was nominated by the Democrats for 
governor, and Samuel Douglas McEnery for lieutenant 
governor. Wiltz, unfortunately for Louisiana lived but 
a short while after being sworn in as chief executive of 
the State, and McEnery, by operation of law, succeeded 
him. Taking up the reins of government where Wiltz 
had left them, he assumed control of the affairs of Louisi- 
ana at a time when everything was in turmoil; when the 
finances of the State had to be recouped; when the 
devastating waters of the Mississippi were overflowing 
the fertile plantations of Louisiana, adding another 
catastrophe to those of war and reconstruction, which 
had so impoverished the people of the State. His was 
a Herculean task, but he was equal to it, and it was not 
long before conditions were restored to their normal state. 
The money of the people commenced to be properly used 
and the levee system to be reconstructed. At the expira- 
tion of his term as governor he found no difficulty in 
securing a reelection, thus continuing the magnificent 
work which he had undertaken; and at the end of his 
second term, in 1888, he was generally known through- 
out Louisiana as the " levee governor," and that appel- 
lation was applied to him during the balance of his life. 
McEnery was succeeded in 1888 by Gov. Nicholls, who 
had been a predecessor, and immediately upon entering 
into the duties of his office he appointed McEnery asso- 
ciate justice of the supreme court of Louisiana, the 
appointment being for a period of 12 years. So, in 1890, 
when the contest for the renewal of the charter of the 
State lottery became an issue before the Louisiana Legis- 
lature, McEnery was a member of the supreme court and 

93228°— 11 5 [65] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator McEnery 

a known and avowed opponent of the Louisiana State 
lottery. 

The unequal contest in the legislature against the State 
lottery was led by Senator Foster, and the fight was car- 
ried forward until the Democratic Party divided in 1892 
on the issue, resulting in two Democratic nominations 
being made for the office of governor. Senator Foster 
became the candidate of the antilottery wing of the party 
and made a valiant fight which ended in driving from 
the State that infamous institution. Senator McEnery, 
then a justice on the supreme bench, became the choice 
of the prolotterj' Democrats and was nominated by them. 
Later a primary election was held between Foster and 
McEnery, each the nominee of the wings into which the 
party had become divided, resulting in the nomination of 
Foster for governor. 

McEnery remained on the bench until 1896, when 
another contest arose in the State. This time the contest 
was between the Democrats who had nominated Gov. 
Foster to succeed himself and a fusion of Republicans, 
Populists, and disgruntled Democrats. While Foster was 
elected, the disaffected elements carried the contest into 
the legislature, and the effect of that contest had direct 
bearing on the election of a United States Senator to suc- 
ceed Senator Blanchard, whose term of office was to 
expire the following year. 

Senator Blanchard, afterwards as splendid and efficient 
a governor as our State ever had, was a candidate; An- 
drew Price, my immediate predecessor in this House, 
one of the best men it has ever been my good fortune to 
know — a clean, honest, benign, and munificent gentle- 
man, who was called much too soon from the midst of 
those whose favor he so justly merited — was also a candi- 
date; as was Judge W. F. Blackman, a man of great 
magnetism and remarkable ability, a distinguished jurist 

[66] 



I 



Address of Mr. Broussard, of Louisiana 



of Louisiana, who continues to occupy a position on the 
bench of that State, reflecting credit on the people wlio 
have elevated him to that office; and another aspirant 
was Mr. Walter D. Denegre, a splendid representative of 
tlie old French families of Louisiana, who represented 
the allied forces, while Blanchard, Price, and Blackman 
were members of the regular Democracy. To elect one 
of those four candidates it seemed impossible. Judge 
McEnery, who, though not a candidate, had been receiv- 
ing three votes during the daily balloting before the legis- 
lature, was sent for one evening; he went to Baton Rouge 
and on the next day was elected United States Senator. 
This was effected by tlie withdrawal from the race of 
Blanchard, Price, and Blackman. 

I was elected to this House and entered into the duties 
of my office at the same time that McEnery was sworn 
into the United States Senate— March, 1897. In passing, 
I state with just pride that Senator McEnery and I never 
disagreed upon any public question nor ever voted differ- 
ently during our service in Congress. 

I so distinctly remember the wide publicity which was 
given to the fact that Senator McEnery's election had 
cost him only $2.35 — the railroad fare between New 
Orleans and Baton Rouge. That a Senator at that time 
could be elected at so little an expense came almost as 
a revelation, and it was a subject of comment as a mat- 
ter of conversation and newspaper and magazine publi- 
cation. And I want to add, right here, that it can be 
said that his subsequent reelections to the Senate, in 1902 
and 1908, cost him as little as his first election to that 
body, as in neither campaign did he have an opponent 
for the nomination in the primaries or at the election by 
the legislature. 

Senator McEnery was repeatedly elected a delegate to 
the Democratic national conventions, and was chairman 

[67] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator McEnery 

of the Louisiana delegation at the Chicago convention 
which nominated Mr. Biyan in 1896. 

The Senator's service in the United States Senate was 
highly honorable, indeed; and, while it might not be 
classed as exceedingly brilliant, it was extremely effective 
and advantageous to his State. The want of brilliancy 
in his service in the Senate was not occasioned, however, 
by lack of attainments or oratorical talents; but it was 
due to a misfortune which overtook him early in his 
service — a deafness which did not permit him to under- 
stand what was going on in the Senate — and excluded 
him, therefore, from active participation in the running 
debates of that body. This misfortune multiplied his 
labors; but he was alwaj's thoroughly posted on all pub- 
lic matters. His services were marked by an attention to 
duty, a devotion to the State and country he loved so 
well, an honesty of purpose, and a zealous patriotism 
unsurpassed by anyone who has ever been honored by 
an election to that distinguished body. 

Having been continuously in the service of his State 
since the inception of the Civil War, and in public office 
from 1879, yet he never acquired wealth, but died as poor 
a man as he was when teaching school upon his return 
from the Civil War. In fact, it was noted through the 
press of the country that there appeared on his property 
on which is located his home in the city of New Orleans, 
where he died, on the very day of his death a notice that 
the property was for sale. 

As to his absorbing attention to duty in the public 
service and his disregard of self-interest, which did not 
permit him at any time to accumulate wealth during his 
long public service in Louisiana and Washington, the 
same can be said of him that was said of that patriotic 
and distinguished citizen of Pennsylvania, Samuel J. 
Randall. In fact, McEnery's life was very much akin to 

[68] 



I 



Address of Mr. Brohssard, of Loiisiana 



the life of Randall, who was so much loved throughout 
the South. Both were of Whig origin; both were essen- 
tially democratic — plain, unassuming, patriotic, inde- 
pendent, and devoted to duty. They were men of deter- 
mination, of courage, moral and physical; devoted to the 
Democratic Party, to which they belonged, and both pro- 
tectionists. In all other questions, however, party man- 
date was, in their view of public life, a public duty. 
Upon the tariff they invariably disagreed with their 
Democratic colleagues, but that disagreement was not 
accompanied with disparagement of the fealty which 
they at all times lent to the cause of the party with which 
they were affiliated. 

It is to be said, perhaps, in behalf of the old Democracy 
that there was more tolerance of differences upon non- 
essentials than there now is under the modern manage- 
ment of the party. 

Randall, first elected to the Forty-second Congress, 
reelected to the Forty-third and Forty-fourth Congresses, 
was, on the death of Speaker Kerr in the Forty-fourth 
Congress, elected Speaker of that Democratic Congress. 
Twice he was reelected to that high and important office, 
continuing as Speaker in the Forty-fifth and Forty-sixth 
Congresses, both of which were Democratic. 

Throughout his services in the Senate, McEnery stood 
by the interest of his State, and in that position he has 
found in accord with him many sons of Louisiana repre- 
senting that State in both branches of Congress. 

When the Mills bill, a Democratic measure, came to 
a vote in the Senate in January, 1889, botli of the Senators 
from Louisiana, Eustis and Gibson, voted against its 
passage. 

The McKinley bill passed the House on May 21, 1890. 
As this bill carried a bounty on sugar, it was generally 
opposed by the sugar planters of the State of Louisiana, 

[69] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator McEnerv 

and Wilkinson, Coleman, and Price, representing the first, 
second, and third districts, respectively, voted against the 
bill, while Louisiana's other Representatives in the 
House — Blanchard, Boatner, and Robertson — abstained 
from voting. Of these, Coleman alone was a Republican. 
On September 10, 1890, the Senate voted on this measure, 
and both of our Senators, Eustis and Gibson, failed to 
cast a vote either for or against the bill. 

The Wilson bill, a Democratic measure, passed the 
House February 1, 1894, and Meyer, Davey, Price, Boatner, 
and Robertson — all Democrats — voted against it. The 
seat of the other Member from Louisiana had just been 
vacated by the appointment of Mr. Blanchard to the 
United States Senate. The bill passed the Senate July 3, 
1894, and our two Senators, CafTery and Blanchard, voted 
for it. President Cleveland refusing to subscribe his 
name to it, the measure became law by operation of the 
Constitution. 

The Dingley bill passed the House March 31, 1897, and 
Mejer, Davey, and myself voted for it, while Ogden, 
Baird, and Robertson voted against it. It passed the 
Senate July 7, 1897, with Senator McEnery voting for and 
Senator Caffery against it — an equal division of Louisi- 
ana's delegation in both House and Senate. 

The Payne bill passed the House April 9, 1909, and 
Estopinal, Pujo, Wickliffe, and myself voted for it. while 
Ransdell and Watkins voted against it. Through the 
deatli of Congressman Davey, the seat from the second 
district was vacant. It passed the Senate on July 8, 1909, 
with Senator McEnerv voting in favor of its adoption, 
while Senator Foster registered his vote against the mea.s- 
ure. From conference the bill came to the House on 
July 31, 1909, and Pujo and Wickliffe changed their 
votes from the anirmafivc and voted against the adop- 
tion of the conference report. Ransdell and Watkins, 

[70] 



Address of Mr. Broussard, of Louisiana 



who had voted against the bill when it passed the House 
on April 9, 1909, also voted against the adoption of the 
conferees' report, while Estopinal and myself voted in 
favor of the report of the conference committee. 

I well recall the conference held by the Louisiana dele- 
gation in Senator McEnery's office to determine the 
course to be pursued by the delegation with respect to 
this last measure. The delegation favored the bill in 
some particulars and opposed it in others. Senator 
McEnery immediately laid down the rule which he said 
should be our guidance : Will this bill as a whole benefit 
or injure Louisiana? He argued pointedly that what 
benefited the people of Louisiana was paramount. One 
section, he said, can not be made to suffer unless the 
entire State suffered likewise. We were, he continued, 
the representatives of the State, and, as such, should 
look to the interest of its people as a whole. Resum- 
ing, he said that these rules were his guidance; and 
by these rules his conduct as a Senator was always 
guided. 

Occupying that position, he has never been held not 
to have performed the duties incumbent upon him in a 
patriotic manner, nor was he ever looked upon with sus- 
picion by his Democratic colleagues in the performance 
of those duties as he conceived them to be any more 
than the shadow of suspicion ever hovered over Samuel 
J. Randall, who, though a protectionist, was three times 
elected Speaker of the House by the Democrats and ap- 
pointed a member of the Ways and Means Committee in 
the Forty-seventh Congress by Speaker Keifer, still a col- 
league of ours in this House; nor any more than suspicion 
attached to Samuel M. Robertson, this prince of splendid 
fellows, who, after casting his vote against the Wilson 
bill, became a member of the Ways and Means Commit- 
tee and was elected secretary of the Democratic caucus, 

[71] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator McEnery 

holding both the assignment to tlie Ways and Means 
Committee and the secretaryship to the caucus for many 
years until his retirement from Congress. 

But these were days when the Democratic Party was 
wary and suspicious of radicalism, when toleration was 
the order of the day and conservatism was her north star. 

Under our Constitution, in so far as the tariff is con- 
cerned, our citizenship may be included into two broad 
classes — those who advocate protection and those who 
advocate tariff for revenue. Among protectionists may 
be included extreme Republicans; and among the Demo- 
crats maj' be included those other extremists, who would 
advocate free trade if that were possible under our Con- 
stitution. The difference between the tariff-for-revenue 
man and the protectionist is, therefore, expressed in per- 
centage. If we accept the ad valorem basis as the true 
basis for the purpose of this illustration, or if we reduce 
the tariff law to an ad valorem basis, it would appear that 
those who advocate an average ad valorem duty of 40 
per cent, that being assumed as the percentage that would 
bring sufTicient revenue into the Treasury, would be 
looked upon as adherents of the policy of tariff for reve- 
nue, while those who advocate a 45 per cent ad valorem 
average, that percentage being assumed as more than 
necessarj' to produce the required revenue, would be 
regarded as protectionists. 

On both ends of this proposition there arc. of course, 
extremes, for the free trader would cut the 40 per cent 
average and take chances of a deficiency in the Treasury, 
while, on the other hand, the high or " stand-pat " protec- 
tionist would increase it above the average of 45 per 
cent and take the same chances. If this be true, who is 
to judge when the tariff on a given article is a revenue 
tariff and when it is a protective tariff? The people of 
each district must decide for themselves, and the Rep- 



[72] 



Address of Mr. Broussard, of Louisiana 



resentative of that district should voice the decision of 
his constituency; the people of each State should decide 
for themselves and the Senator should voice the opinion 
of his State. This was Senator McEnery's rule of guid- 
ance, and his people approved of it by reelecting him 
again and again without opposition. 

Fundamentally speaking, the Democratic Party is built 
upon the idea of individual liberty in its broadest sense 
and scope within the limitations fixed by the Federal 
Constitution. That scope essentially includes the prin- 
ciples of local self-government; that scope includes State 
sovereignty, which is the broader expression of local self- 
government, and necessarily contemplates that the Rep- 
resentative, if he be a Member of the House, should 
receive his primary- instructions from the constituency 
composing his district. And the Senator, representing a 
sovereign State, should receive, primarily, his instruc- 
tions from the people of his State. 

In the early days, during the time that Mr. Randall 
was a Member of this House, among Democrats caucuses 
were unknown; conferences were the order of the day. 
Democratic Members met in conference, looked into a 
situation, discussed and sought to convince each other 
that unity of action was important, and sought a com- 
mon ground upon which to stand. Where, however, in- 
structions of a constituency contravened, the result of 
the conference was not mandatory upon the Member. 

In so far as Democratic Congressmen were concerned, 
this continued to be the rule of action in both the House 
and Senate, and it is only of late that a different course 
of action has been inaugurated. When this new course 
was adopted and the caucus resorted to in place of the 
conference, rules to safeguard the people in keeping with 
Democratic doctrine were adopted. 



[73] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator McEnery 

The rule itself, in so far as Democratic Members of the 
House are concerned, had best be quoted as a thorough 
exemplification of the fact that the principle of the party 
has never been abandoned in the substitution of the cau- 
cus for the conference, but that the integrity of State 
sovereignty and local self-government has been main- 
tained in theory at least. I quote from the rules adopted 
by the Democratic caucus: 

That no Member shall be bound upon questions involving a con- 
struction of the Constitution of the United States or upon which 
he made contrary pledges to his constituents prior to Ills elec- 
tion or received contrary instructions by resolutions or platform 
from his nominating authority. 

This is the wording of the proviso; this is in keeping 
with the principles contended for and the policy pursued 
by Senator McEnery as a member of the Senate; and I 
take some little pride in the fact that, because of my 
course, perhaps, these exceptions, essential as they are 
to the very life of democracy, responding to a will of 
the government by the people, recognizing the sovereignty 
of the State and local self-government, have been recog- 
nized in very words, as they should ever be in Democratic 
practice. Let the theorist theorize, but let men of thought 
measure their power by their authority. Let them not 
surrender the power, but better that than to usurp au- 
thority not delegated. 

The Congressman — and I use the word in its true 
sense — is but the agent of the people who, or the State 
which, sends him here. The principle, in so far as a 
Member of the House is concerned, is that those who elect 
that Member have a right to instruct him in regard to 
their interests, and the Representative has absolutely no 
right to act adversely to such instructions. When his con- 
science will not permit him to carrj' out these instructions, 

[74] 



Address of Mr. Broussard, of Louisiana 

the Congressman's plain duty is to resign his office or, 
better still, not to accept the office, unless it is his purpose 
to act agreeably to the instructions of his constituency. 

A State which sends a Senator to the higher body has 
unquestionably the right to instruct its Senator; and 
whenever it is impossible for the Senator to reconcile his 
conscience or his judgment with his instructions, then 
his mission is to forego the office and permit the State to 
send some one who will carrj' out the instructions of its 
people. 

Such was always Senator McEnery's conception of his 
duties, and a broad toleration of those principles in a 
militant democracj' but enlarges and broadens the peo- 
ple's conception of duty, lends itself to confidence in legis- 
lation, and removes everj' opportunity for suspicions and 
criticisms, which always tend to undermine the people's 
belief in the integrity of legislative bodies. 

Senator McEnery was a man of great simplicity of char- 
acter; he greeted everybody most kindly; he was cour- 
ageous in doing what he believed was right in carrying 
out instructions of those he represented; he was fearless 
in asserting his opinion; and such qualities as these en- 
deared him to the people of Louisiana. 

He was a man of heroic soul, poor in the goods of this 
world, but infinitely rich in a fame that outlives him; an 
unsullied reputation, to which his legion of friends in 
Louisiana and elsewhere can point with unceasing pride 
and bid future generations to emulate his honesty, his 
fairness, his independence, and his patriotism. And in 
those respects he stands as an exemplar to all men who 
are devoted to a constitutional government and who are 
striving to elevate the people in the enjoyment of those 
things which are decreed sacred and inalienable — life, 
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. 



[75] 



Memorial Addresses : Senator McEnery 

Great son of north Louisiana, permit a fellow citizen of 
south Louisiana to assure you that you are no more 
honored and your loss is no more keenly felt in the hills 
of your section of our State than on the plains of south 
Louisiana. In common with your neighbors of the hills, 
we call you our own. Surely, your deeds were for our 
entire State and your statesmanship broader than any 
section. 



[76] 



Address of Mr. Lamb, of Virginia 

Mr. Speaker: Louisiana, like Virginia, has been par- 
ticularly unfortunate in theloss of Representatives dur- 
ing the past decade. Louisiana has lost five by death and 
Virginia seven since I have been a Member of this Con- 
gress. Senator McEnery and myself entered the Fifty- 
fifth Congress together. For a short time he lived at the 
same hotel with me. During all the years that have 
passed since 1897 he was very near me. I often met and 
talked with him at the Metropolitan Hotel. \Vc had much 
in common, being about the same age, having entered the 
Civil War about the same time and served with John 
Bankhead Magruder on the historic Peninsula of Virginia, 
he with the infantry and I with the cavalry arm of the 
service. 

For this reason, no doubt, my good friends and col- 
leagues of the State of Louisiana have requested me to 
unite with them in these solemn ceremonies for the pur- 
pose of paying tribute to the life and character of another 
Member of Congress from their State. 

Samuel Douglas McEnery was distinctly a Louisianian. 
For thirty-odd years he bore a conspicuous part in her 
histoiy, largely shaping her policies and aiding in her 
upward progress. In the trying days of reconstruction 
he proved his worth as counselor, guide, and public serv- 
ant. Loyal in friendship, fervid in patriotism, a pro- 
found thinker, with high ideals and broad liberal views, 
he labored incessantly for the good of his State and his 
people. 

[77] 



II 



Memorial Addressks: Senator McEnerv 

He held the highest honors Louisiana could bestow and 
was trusted with her most important affairs. He incurred 
criticism and censure, but his motives were never ques- 
tioned, and no charge of corruption or betrayal of trust 
was ever imputed to him by even his bitterest enemies. 

This alone is praise enough for any man who was an 
active leader and worker in evei^y political movement in 
his State for more than 30 years. 

Samuel Douglas McEnery was born May 28, 1837, and 
died June 28, 1910. He was a native of Monroe County, 
La. He attended Spring Hill College, near Mobile; the 
United States Naval Academy at Annapolis; the Uni- 
versity of Virginia; and the State and National Law 
School at Poughkeepsie. 

Just of age when the Civil War came on, he enlisted in 
the Confederate service as second lieutenant in Company 
C, Second Louisiana Infantry, and served in the Army of 
the Peninsula (Virginia) under Gen. John Bankhead 
Magruder to May 1, 1862, on which day he is reported 
dropped by reason of the reorganization of liis company. 
During his connection with the Second Louisiana Infantry 
his regiment participated in the engagement at Lees Mill 
during the siege of Yorktown by the Union Army under 
Gen. George B. McClellan. On July 23, 1862, McEnery 
was appointed second lieutenant and drillmastcr, to report 
lo Brig. Gen. Albert G. Blanchard, and served with gal- 
lantry and distinction in the trans-Mississippi to the close 
of the war. 

The principles for whicli ho fought and the righteous- 
ness of his case is being recognized as the years roll by. 
In a few short years thinking men will say that possibly 
after all it would have been better for constitutional gov- 
ernment and human liberty had the principles contended 
for by the South in that great struggle been established 
and maintained. 

[78] 



Address of Mr. Lamb, of Virginia 



We can not contemplate the rapid passing away of these 
old Confederate soldiers without remembering the condi- 
tions after their defeat that tried, even more than war, 
their courage, patience, and fortitude. History is searched 
in vain for a parallel. In the era of good feeling of to- 
day we do not like to dwell on the helpless and hopeless 
condition of the Southern soldiers after Appomattox. 
Under good laws, well administered, it would have been a 
Herculean task to restore their fallen fortunes. Success, 
in spite of the worst legislation that ever afflicted a fallen 
and suffering people, is simply a marvel, and stamps these 
men as the best, the bravest, and the truest that have ever 
lived in all the tide of time. 

The philosophical historian of the future will tell the 
wonderful storj' of their achievements in peace, and our 
children's children will set it to their credit as equal, if 
not surpassing, the victories they won in war. 

Such is my faith in the people of our Southland that I 
predict with confidence that before the last old Confeder- 
ate soldier shall join his comrades on the other side he 
will see his beloved South stronger in material resources 
and richer per capita than any part of this Union. 

McEnery was a leader in the political campaign of 1876, 
and largely through his brilliant leadership his party's 
success was made possible, and redemption from the hor- 
rors and misrule of reconstruction was accomplished in 
Louisiana. 

His State never forgot these services, nor will the name 
of McEnery ever cease to be associated with that sadly 
needed redemption. 

In 1879, though not in accord with the dominant politi- 
cal faction, he was nominated for lieutenant governor, 
and became governor in 1881 by the death of Gov. Wiltz. 
He was reelected in 1884, and was defeated for nomi- 
nation by Gen. Nicholls in the convention of 1888, and 

[79] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator McEnery 

was by him appointed as associate justice of the supreme 
court. 

In 1896 he was appealed to as the only Democrat who 
could be elected to the United States Senate against the 
coalition in the legislature of Populists and Republicans. 

His action before the Democratic caucus on this occa- 
sion perhaps gives a truer line on his life and character 
than any other occasion afforded, and shows the beacon 
by which McEnery steered his course through life. He 
frankly and fearlessly told that caucus his views and con- 
victions on leading political questions; that he was a pro- 
tectionist; was in favor of national improvements, with 
broad national views on various other questions, and if 
elected would follow his convictions regardless of party 
views and platforms. 

He concealed nothing and conceded nothing as against 
his convictions of right and duty. Frankness, openness, 
and independence marked every day of his life to its close. 
When McEnery was harshly criticized by many Demo- 
cratic journals and leaders, his defense was that his views 
were made known before his election; that the Demo- 
crats accepted him under these conditions, thus granting 
him independence. He was reelected in 1902 and in 
1908, and twice submitted his name to the popular vote. 

No Senator enjoyed or exercised more absolute inde- 
pendence than McEnery. His colleagues and his constit- 
uents fully realized that his convictions controlled his 
votes, regardless of party platforms and views. 

A most etfective and diligent worker, no labor was too 
great, no duty was too small to claim his courteous and 
painstaking attention at any time. Dignified, cordial, 
polite, whether to governor or newsboy, he won the con- 
fidence and respect of all. His characteristics of manner, 
his faculty for making friends in even*' .sphere of life 
aided greatly in the results he accomplished. While 

[80] 



Address of Mr. Lamb, of Virginia 



manners did not make the man, it did make the man's 
work more easy and cflfcctive and made an able and 
distinguished man a delightful friend and companion. 

So appropriate are the words of an editorial of the 
New Orleans Times-Democrat of June 29, 1910, that I shall 
here quote them : 

All recognized McEnery as a faithful servant of Louisiana and 
its people, always ready to work in tfieir interest and never think- 
ing of himself, for he acquired little or nothing in his thirty-odd 
years of public service, and he served all who applied to him with 
equal zeal and earnestness. No man was naturally kinder of 
heart, more considerate of others, and there have been few men 
in active political life in Louisiana who have made more friends; 
indeed, during the latter days of his life he received the faithful 
support of those who had been most heartily opposed to him 
during the stormy days of factionalism in Louisiana, in which 
he played so important a part. No one will deny that in him 
Louisiana has lost a faithful and devoted son. 

He measured up to every duty and obligation. He was 
vigilant, active, and efficient, and singularly successful 
in the accomplishment of results. His strong, active mind 
and business habits enabled him to grasp the salient point 
in everj' problem with ease and dispatch. His large 
experience and extensive acquaintance in life gave him a 
breadth of view that made him agreeable and pleasant 
in conference as well as fair-minded in the settling of all 
differences. 

Ripe in years and honors, beloved and mourned by the 
State he so ably and efficiently served, honored and 
respected by his colleagues and his Nation, he rests from 
his labors. His deeds and influences live after him, a 
model and example to admire and emulate. His ambi- 
tions realized; his patient, untiring efforts crowned with 
rich success; his life work done, he sleeps in peace and 
love and honor in the sacred soil of the State he loved so 
dearly and served so faithfully. 

93228°— 11 G [81] 



Address of Mr. Goulden, of New York 

Mr. Speaker: We have met on this peaceful Sabbath 
to pay tribute to the memory of one of our late associates. 
Though but a short time. Congress has had many losses 
by death since we closed our labors in June last. 

It is sad, indeed, to know that so many of our friends 
have been called to answer the last summons of the 
Supreme Ruler of the Universe. 

One by one they have fallen, dying in the midst of 
careers of usefidness. Better thus than drag along for 
years in suffering and worry, with nothing to cheer them 
in the way of future deeds commensurate with past 
achievements. 

Better far to pass to the other shore while able to per- 
form acts of usefulness to the country and of benefit to 
mankind. 

To-day we meet to honor the memory of S.\muel Doi'G- 
LAS McEnery, a distinguished Senator from the State of 
Louisiana. 

He lived beyond the allotted space of threescore and 
ten. 

His life was one of usefulness and distinction. Of him 
and his life the words of Emerson fitly apply: 

Life is too short to waste 

The critic's bite or cynic's bark. 

Quarrel or reprimand; 
'Twill soon be dark; 

Up! Mind thine own aim, and 
God speed the mark. 

[82] 



Address of Mr. Goulden, of New York 

He was honored by the people of his State as a justice 
of the supreme court, as governor, and as United States 
Senator. 

In all these positions he served with rare ability and 
honesty, reflecting credit on his Commonwealth and the 
Nation. 

His name and deeds add luster to the history of the 
great men produced by this countrj' since its creation. 

A sterling character, a good soldier, a patriotic citizen, 
an upright judge, and renowned as the chief executive of 
a great State, his deeds live after him. 

Such men can only be found in a republic where equal 
opportunities exist to all its people. 

It was my special privilege to have seen our friend in 
his home city a few years since, and there among his close 
personal friends and associates to study his character and 
witness the respect and affection in which he was held by 
those who had known him all their lives. 

He was the soul of hospitality, generous and kind to 
all, especially to the stranger within the city. 

His feelings for the veterans of the Federal Army, 
whose character and fighting qualities he learned to 
respect and admire in the days that tried men's souls, 
never left him. 

He was always willing to accord to them every possible 
recognition, and was exceedingly liberal in his views as 
to pensions for the boys in blue who had saved the 
Nation. 

As a comrade serving under a different flag, I am 
impelled by a sense of duty to lay this brief, simple trib- 
ute on the grave of an honored patriotic citizen of our 
common country. 

He has gone from among us, having crossed to the 
other shore in the full hope of a blessed immortality. 



[83] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator McEnery 



It is a road that we must all travel, for it is appointed 
unto man once to die. This decree is unalterable; all must 
meet it. Let us meet it, as he did, bravely. 

The memory of the life and deeds of our friend is ours 
to cherish and emulate. 

He sleeps, but in that sleep beneath the sod 

No dreams shall come — those dreams that banish sleep; 
No watchers, then, naught save the eyes of God, 

To watch his slumber long and still and deep. 
Then mourn him not as dead — he can not die — 

And mourn him not as sleeping in that day; 
He wakes, he lives, not far in yonder sky, 

But near us, though not seen, he walks to-day. 

His memory will abide with his family and friends a 
benediction and a blessing. 



I 



[84] 



Address of Mr. Pujo, of Louisiana 

Mr. Speaker: The people of the district I have the 
honor to represent on this floor had great affection for 
Senator McEnery while living, and now that he is no more 
they respect and venerate his menioiy. His name is not 
only treasured by the people, but his achievements in the 
upbuilding of his State are recorded in her history. His 
crowning public service is usually considered as having 
been the development of the levee system of Louisiana, 
because of his great and successful efforts in that behalf, 
but in my judgment his work in encouraging emigration 
from other States resulted in the betterment of conditions 
in Louisiana more than any other act of his public career. 

I remember that in 1887 he convoked a great interstate 
agricultural convention at Lake Charles. United States 
Senators, Representatives, and others high in every line 
of human endeavor gathered there and obtained at first 
hand knowledge of the possibilities of the State. 

Mr. Speaker, the result of that convention in the mate- 
rial development and settlement of southwest Louisiana 
was frequently adverted to by Senator McEnery as one 
of the crowning acts of his administration while governor 
of that great State. It brought a population of thrifty 
farmers from the North and the West into a section of 
the countrj' then used for stock raising only, and that part 
of the State at this time is thickly populated and more 
than a hundred million dollars have been added to the 
taxable value of Louisiana, to say nothing of the great 
number of splendid citizens who have made their homes 
with us. 

[85] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator McEnery 

Mr. Speaker, I did not belong to the then political fac- 
tion in the division of our party in Louisiana of which 
Senator McEnery was leader and to which reference has 
been made. I found myself on the other side. I was 
never thrown in close contact with him, but always enter- 
tained, in common with the people of Louisiana, the 
highest respect for his integrity and the greatest admira- 
tion for his ability. 

When I came to the Fifty-eighth Congress Senator Mc- 
Enery extended to me, always, when I called upon him 
for assistance every help within his power; he was ever 
courteous, and it seemed to be a labor of love for him to 
assist his colleagues in obtaining legislation at the other 
end of the Capitol. 

I then began to understand why it was that he was so 
strong and so popular with those who knew him best. 
His uniform courtesy, his absolute sincerity, his freedom 
from guile appealed to all the better instincts of man and 
not only invited but compelled the greatest degree of 
respect. In Louisiana many people have often asked the 
question. Why was Senator McEnery' so popular? In 
the first place, Mr. Speaker, it is l)ocause he was an honest 
man and a truthful man, capstoned by unquestioning 
loyalty to his friends. 

His great success in public life was duo to that cause 
above all others, and a State is to be congratulated when 
her public men place such an estimate upon their words, 
upon their actions, upon their positions as to invite the 
admiration of their friends and challenge the respect of 
their enemies. Louisiana has lost a great public servant, 
his family one who devoted his life to their welfare and 
advancement, and his friends one whom they will regret 
as long as tlu y have the memorv' to recall his devotion to 
them under anv and all circumstances. 



[86] 



Address of Mr. Padgett, of Tennessee 
Mr. Padgett said: 

I live for those who love me, 

For those who know me true; 

For the God who made me 
And the good that I may do. 

Mr. Speaker, these lines were written years ago, and in 
their sentiment may be found an accurate understanding 
of the motives of Senator McEnery. They afford an 
cxphination of the motives and purposes of his life. The 
mainspring of his conduct was reflected in those lines. 
Through them there shines a light that brings into bold 
relief the influences which mark and emphasize his life 
and his work. 

Though there was a great difference in our ages, there 
existed a warm personal friendship between us. Having 
a considerable family connection in my home town, 
among the best and most honored of our citizenship, he 
visited the town. He upon the Senate Naval Committee 
and myself upon the House Naval Committee, our work 
brought us into association and fellowship. From the 1st 
to the 4th day of June, 1910, we were upon the Board of 
Visitors together at the Naval Academy at Annapolis. I 
believe it was the 28th of the same month that he was 
called hence. It never occurred to me during this last 
association and labor that so soon would he be translated. 

It is my purpose, Mr. Speaker, to speak only a few 
words as to the impressions I had of him. The influences 

[87] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator McEnery 

of his life, association with him, fellowship with him, 
made upon me certain impressions as to his character, 
as to the principles and motives which actuated him in 
his conduct, and it is of these that I rise to speak. I shall 
not attempt to review his work in his political and active 
life in his own State. Others have already spoken elo- 
quently and in detail of the splendid career and of the 
magnificent work which he did in his own State. I shall 
content myself in this respect to say that in his own State 
in those dark days, in those troublous times, he was a 
rock in a weary land and a shelter in a time of storm. 

I shall speak of him first as a man with a big heart, and 
such he did possess. In the language of the first line of 
the verse, " I live for those who love me," truly Senator 
McEnery did so. He loved his friends. There was no 
sacrifice for them — in their interest, for their welfare, 
for their well-being, for the elevation and promotion 
of their interest and their upbuilding — which he was 
not willing to make. Out of his heart at all times there 
flowed a stream of affection and unceasing love for his 
friends. He was true to his friends, and for them he 
was not only willing to sacrifice, but was ready to go 
further. For them he was ready to labor and to toil, to 
give of the energj' and of the power of his life and of 
his being. And no more can be said that carries a higher 
attribute than to say of a man that he had a heart full of 
love for his friends. 

There is another phase in the life of this man, an ele- 
ment of his character which was fundamental, of which 
I desire to speak, and that is that in the broad, deep, high, 
and noble sense of the word he was a patriot. He loved 
his country. He loved her historj', he felt a pride and 
personal interest in the institutions, in the spirit and the 
genius of the people, of the country, and of its citizenship. 
From the foundation of the country- until this day there 

[88] 



I 



Address of Mr. Padgett, of Tennessee 



was no noble deed performed, there was no noble illus- 
tration of patriotic purpose or high achievement for 
which Senator McEnery did not feel and claim a personal 
interest and manifest a personal appreciation. His 
patriotism was not bounded and limited by the con- 
fines of his own State. 1 would not be understood to 
minimize his love for his own State and his own peo- 
ple. 1 would emphasize and magnify it, and yet as 
great as was his love for his own State and the insti- 
tutions of his own people and his own citizenship, his 
patriotism rose above and was broader and compre- 
hended the history of the whole countrj' and the love and 
fellowship of all the people. 

He shared the hopes of the future of the country. 
Although he had reached a ripe age in his years, he had 
not turned his face to the rear. He faced the future, and 
in the future of the countrj-, in the development of its 
industries, in the progress of the people, the enlarged 
spheres of usefulness that are reserved for the generations 
to come in that higher, nobler, larger, more generous 
civilization that is to be the heritage of our children and 
our children's children as the fruit of the labors of this 
and past generations, he looked with confidence and 
assurance, and felt a lively interest and expectation in the 
glories of our country- yet to come. 

He was a brave man. No man could ever say that he 
concealed his convictions. What he believed he believed, 
and he hid it from no man. Having the courage of his 
convictions, he was tenacious to his duty. He was not a 
coward in the face of responsibility. He met boldly and 
frankly and openly the discharge of every duty that came 
to him in the conscious conviction of what he believed was 
right. 

There is one trait of his character upon which I desire 
to speak with peculiar pride. He was a courteous gcntle- 

[89] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator McEnery 

man. He belonged to that old school wherein politeness 
was regarded as a superior virtue. I would not speak it, 
Mr. Speaker, as a criticism, and yet I do desire to call 
attention to it. In the present day, in the tumult and the 
hurry and the bustle and the confusion and the strife 
incident to the conditions that surround us, I sometimes 
feel that the present generation does not have that regard, 
that veneration, for that superb element of character — 
politeness, courteous and dignified demeanor — which 
characterized our fathers and our grandfathers; and it 
differentiates, if you please, the unpolished diamond from 
the polished diamond. In this respect Senator McEnery 
was a polished diamond. 

I may add that he was a true man. 

I live for those who love me, 
For those who know me true. 

He loved the truth. He loved the truth, not for policy's 
sake, not because it might be expedient, but because there 
was implanted in his heart, there was ingrained in his 
soul, the love of that which is true, of that which is real, 
of that which is genuine. He despised hypocrisy. He 
hated a sham. He admired integrity of character and 
nobility of purpose, and ever strove to measure his own 
conduct by that high standard that ever makes the meas- 
ure of a true man. He was true to his convictions of duty. 
He was true to his countrj'. He was true to the obliga- 
tions of citizenship. He was true to the obligations of 
friendship, and there I may observe, Mr. Speaker, that 
citizenship and friendship impose obligations. He was 
not forgetful that as a citizen obligations rested upon him, 
obligations which should mark and shape his own con- 
duct and his own actions; obligations which should con- 
trol his relationship with his fellows, and which should 
mark the discharge of his duty toward the institutions of 

[90] 



Address of Mr. Padgett, of Tennessee 



his country; and in the long years of his life, in the long 
years of his puhlic service, varied as they were, no man 
can put his hand upon one act of the life of this man and 
say, " Herein was he false to his duty and the obligations 
to his country and its citizenship." 

He was a man of broad sympathies. He had humani- 
tarian views. His sympathies were as broad, as tender, 
and as generous as his conceptions of his duty to human- 
ity. He was a man of broad intellectual vision. He did 
not live in the low valley of ignorance and superstition. 
He had ascended a considerable height on the mountain 
side of knowledge and of information and of learning, 
and from his viewpoint he was enabled to look out far 
and wide and have a large vision of the activities of men, 
the energies of life, and the sympathies of the brother- 
hood of man; and to these he measured up nobly and 
grandly. 

But, Mr. Speaker, he is gone— they say " dead." If you 
mean destruction, no. If you mean annihilation, nay. If 
you mean transition, truly. If you mean the shedding of 
the habiliments of flesh, that hamper and circumscribe 
and limit the possibilities, the hopes, the aspirations of 
the human soul and the human life, yes, indeed. Into a 
larger, better, more glorious life, where the responsibility 
shall be greater, where the opportunity shall be larger, 
where our capacity shall be commensurate with those 
opportunities, he is gone. As we stand at the grave we 
say, "We can follow no farther," and yet out of our souls 
comes the thought — 

I know not where His islands lift 

Their fronded palms in air; 
1 only know I can not drift 

Beyond His love and care. 



[91] 



Address of Mr. Flood, of Virginia 

Mr. Speaker: Virginia claims the privilege to add her 
voice to the note of sympathy at the death of the distin- 
guished Senator from Louisiana. There is a strong his- 
toric tie that binds Virginia to Louisiana. It was Vir- 
ginia's Monroe, the fifth President of the United States, 
who as minister to France in 1803 contracted with Bona- 
parte for the purchase of the Louisiana territory, and it 
was Virginia's Jetferson, author of the Declaration of 
Independence and third President of the United States, 
who proposed to Congress to ratify the purchase, and laid 
aside his scruples as to the constitutionality of the meas- 
ure in order to add to the Union the immense territory 
that stretches from the Mississippi to Oregon — an em- 
pire that exceeded the conquest of Cortez and lay beyond 
the dream of Alexander. 

My claim as a Virginian to offer my tribute to the de- 
ceased rests also on the fact that he was educated in part 
at the university of my State, and it is not inappropriate 
to pause for a moment to remark that it was, most I'kely, 
the splendid mental training he received at the Virginia 
University wliich enabled him to accomplish .the great 
work he did and achieve the great reputation which will 
send his name resounding down the corridors of time. 

Mr. Speaker, never was there a more chivalrous and 
courteous gentleman, a more genial and sympathetic na- 
ture, a more independent and courageous character than 
Senator Samuel Douglas McEnerv. He was the verj- soul 
of courtesy and self-respecting dignity and demeanor. 

He had splendid natural mental endowments and 
enjoyed the advantage of a verj' thorough intellectual 

[92] 



Address of Mr. Flood, of Virginia 



training in early life. He was educated at Spring Hill 
College (Alabama), the United States Naval Academy, 
and the University of Virginia, and was a graduate of the 
State and National Law School at Poughkeepsie, N. Y. 
He was thus well equipped for the severe strain which 
his subsequent career imposed upon him, and this mental 
equipment was reenforced by an indomitable will and an 
unconquerable determination to succeed. 

When the Civil War broke out. Senator McEnery had 
just attained his majority. He did not hesitate a moment, 
but enlisted in the Confederate Army and served with 
distinction throughout the entire war. 

When the war ended he returned to his native State and 
rapidly rose to the head of the legal profession. 

For more than 30 years he had been a leader in the 
political affairs of his State and the Nation. Every honor 
which an appreciative constituency could bestow was 
heaped upon him. He was lieutenant governor of Louisi- 
ana, then governor, then associate justice of the supreme 
court of the State, and was then three times elected to the 
United States Senate. 

Senator McEnery was recognized by all of his associates 
as one of the most upright of men. The finger of sus- 
picion never pointed at him. There was not gold enough 
in the mines of Alaska to deter him from the performance 
of a duty. 

And so in his career we recognize the honest man, the 
diligent student, the courageous soldier, the accomplished 
lawyer, the constructive State builder, the jurist, and the 
statesman. 



[93] 



Address of Mr. Estopinal, of Louisiana 

Mr. Speaker: When Samiei. Dot (;las McEnery died, 
full of years and public service — I will not say full of 
honors, as the stereotyped phrase goes, for place and posi- 
tion do not honor such a man — there died one of the great- 
est men I ever knew. He not only liad the great mind that 
encompassed and illumined every subject he touched, but 
he had the great heart, the broad human sympathy, which 
gave understanding and made constructive statesman- 
ship easy and natural. He was not a leader of men in the 
usual acceptance of the term; he was more than that; he 
was the diviner of ways, the solver of difficulties, the 
meeter of trying situations, the one man who was equal 
to every emergency. 

Mr. Speaker, it was in 1872 that my association with 
(lov. McEnery began — 1 say " Governor " McEnery, for 
that is the designation which seemed to cling to him from 
his old friends throughout his years of judicial and sena- 
torial service, and I am sure he liked it, from them. From 
that time on we were friends; and in all the lieat of fac- 
tional strife and through his every political vicissitude— 
for years he was the storm center in Louisiana — I 
was his supporter, at all times and under all circum- 
stances. On one occasion conditions arose in our State 
which forced him into a situation which, I think, he 
would gladly have avoided; not that he thought that he 
was ill the wrong, for I am sure he was sincerely confident 
that he was in the right. It was not of his seeking, nor 

[94] 



Address of Mr. Estopinal, of Louisiana. 

even of his accord, that ho was placed at the head of a 
protesting ticket that all realized was destined to defeat. 
He was defeated, but it was not his defeat, for no self- 
seeking purpose dominated him. It was the defeat of the 
party which had called upon him to cany its banner, and 
he lost nothing of popularity nor the love of the people. 

Senator McEnery had a brilliant war record in the 
Confederate Army. His political life commenced in 1880, 
when he was elected lieutenant governor. I was a mem- 
ber of the State senate over which he presided and can 
recall his popularity with that body, all of whom became 
his warm admirers and sincere friends. The death of 
Gov. Wiltz a few months after his inauguration raised 
him to the gubernatorial chair, and his election for a full 
term followed at the next State election. He was brought 
out as a candidate for a third term, but was defeated for 
nomination by Gov. Francis T. Nicholls, who had been 
governor, but who had been retired by the constitutional 
convention of 1879. Recognizing the great ability of his 
defeated opponent. Gov. Nicholls appointed him as asso- 
ciate justice of the supreme court — a graceful act — which 
was applauded throughout the State. It was while on the 
supreme bench that he was drafted to again lead the 
ticket of his faction of the party and, after a contest in the 
State convention and in a race before the people, he was 
finally defeated. A critical situation for the party arose 
in 1896, which resulted in the election of Justice McEnery, 
for he was at that time on the supreme bench of the State, 
to the United States Senate. He served continuously in 
the Senate until his death, having been twice reelected 
without opposition. 

Mr. Speaker, Senator McEnery had that simple honesty 
which followed the right at all times without thought 
of effects. He had that loyalty which gave confidence 
and friendship as well as received it. He liad the most 

[95] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator McEnery 



democratic spirit and ways of any man 1 ever knew. As 
far as rank and station went, men were all one to him. 
I do not mean to infer that he did not have his warm 
friendships and chosen confidants, but rank and station 
had nothing to do even with these, for he had friends in 
every walk of life to whom he gave his fullest confidence. 
He faithfully served his State as lieutenant governor, 
governor, justice of the supreme court, and United States 
Senator continuously for 30 years, and his sudden death 
cast a gloom over our entire State. 



[961 



Address of Mr. Collier, of Mississippi 

Mr. Speaker: We are assembled here on this Sabbath 
day to perform one of those sad duties which have be- 
come so frequent during the sessions of the Sixty-first 
Congress. Sunday after Sunday finds us in this historic 
Hall, reverently gathered together to pay our last tribute 
of respect to the memory of sonic lamented Senator or 
Representative. With distressing frequency, on our way 
to the House to attend our daily duties, our attention has 
been arrested, and we are again shocked, by the sight 
of the American flag flying at half-mast upon the Capitol, 
announcing to us that the dread messenger had again 
appeared in our midst and again served his rude and 
unwelcome summons. 

To-day we meet to commemorate the life, the character, 
and the services of a distinguished statesman from the 
Commonwealth of Louisiana, Senator Samuel Douglas 
McEnery. He was a man whom the people of his native 
State delighted to honor. Few, even among fortune's 
favored, have had as many distinguished honors con- 
ferred upon them as the people of Louisiana gladly con- 
ferred upon their favored and illustrious son. Lieuten- 
ant governor, governor, associate justice ol the supreme 
court, and three times elected to the United States Senate 
is a political record which is rarely found in the sum of 
one man's life. 

For considerably over a quarter of a century Senator 
McEnery was an important factor in the political history 
of Louisiana. 

93228°— 11 7 [97] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator McEnery 

As a Senator he was careful, painstaking, conscientious, 
and fearless. He at all times represented what he be- 
lieved to be the best interests of that great State whose 
commission he held. The welfare and prosperity of 
Louisiana was ever his aim and purpose, and during his 
long service in the United States Senate he earnestly 
labored for the advancement and upbuilding of his native 
State. 

The many positions of trust conferred upon him, the 
numerous honors given to him by his people, and the 
continued indorsements he received from the electorate 
of Louisiana were evidences of his personal popularity, 
and conclusively show the high esteem and respect in 
which he was held by the people of his native State. 

His claim upon the affections of his people was not 
based alone upon his political services. He was an officer 
in the Confederate Army, serving with much distinction 
in Virginia and in the trans-Mississippi department. But 
it was during the dark days of reconstruction that Senator 
McEnery rendered the conspicuous services which so 
endeared him to the people of Louisiana. His bold and 
fearless stand against carpetbaggism, his active opposi- 
tion to the political vices of the period, and his splendid 
efforts in behalf of white supremacy will never be for- 
gotten by his grateful people. Much of the admiration 
he excited in the breasts of the citizens of his Common- 
wealth can be traced back to his tireless energy, intrepid 
conduct, and the conspicuous qualities of leadership he 
displayed during tliose troublous times. 

The distinguished Senator whose memory we com- 
memorate to-day lived a long and useful life, the greater 
part of whicli was spent in the service of his country. 
Despite his advanced age, he was still engaged in this 
service when the dread messenger came. 



[98] 



Address of Mr. Collier, of Mississippi 

Senator McEnery will be missed in Louisiana, that 
beautiful land of splendid citizenship, of romance, of sun- 
shine, of flowers — the land he loved so well. That land 
will know him no more; he has passed away, but he is not 
forgotten, for he has left behind him, enshrined in the 
hearts of the people of Louisiana, a priceless legacy, " the 
memory of earnest deeds well done." 

Mr. Speaker, it is indeed a melancholy thought, when 
we reflect, that when those whom we knew in this life 
have passed away we will see them on earth no more and 
that they have vanished from our mortal sight forever. 
This thought would be intolerable were it not for the 
promise of immortality, which, like a bright star of hope, 
lights life's journey through the years down to the grave. 

And though the dead may have passed from our mortal 
vision forever, ami the busy scenes of their labors will 
know them no more, yet the human heart, torn by sorrow 
and distress, in the supreme moment of desolation is com- 
forted and consoled by the Divine assurance that " He 
doeth all things well," for — 

There is no death; we fall asleep 
To waken where they never weep; 
We close our eyes on pain and sin; 
Our breath ebbs out, but life flows in. 



[99] 



Address of Mr. Dupre, of Louisiana 

Mr. Speaker: Samuel Douglas McEnery is dead, and 
a leader in Israel has fallen. Not a leader in any State or 
sectional sense — though his life story is inseparably inter- 
woven with the history of Louisiana for the last 40 years 
and though he typified in the simplicity and integrity of 
his private life and in the independence and fidelity of 
his public career the best traditions of the South — but a 
leader in a large and national sense, for in his 13 years 
of service in the Senate of the United States it fell to him 
to cast the deciding vote on some of the most important 
measures from an economic and governmental standpoint 
that have arisen since the Civil War. 

I shall not, in view of the numerous addresses that 
have already been made, review in detail his long and 
eventful career. As a midshipman in the United States 
Navy, as a soldier in the Army of the Confederacy, as the 
leader of an outraged people in their revolt from the 
domination of aliens of his race and their less guilty fol- 
lowers of an inferior race, as lieutenant governor, as 
governor, as a justice of the supreme court, and as a 
Senator of the United Statc>s he was true to every trust 
reposed in him, discharging every duty with a devotion 
born of an unalloyed patriotism and a capacity derived 
from a high order of intelligence. Like Oliver Goldsmith, 
" he touched nothing that he did not adorn." 

His public life can be divided into four eras: His heroic 
struggle for white supremacy in reconstruction days, his 
tenure as chief executive for seven years, his judicial 

[100] 



Address of Mr. Difre, of Louisiana 

service for eight years, and his senatorial service from 
1897 to the day of his death. 

I could only speak of the first from hearsay, so I shall 
not dwell on those troublous times, but no historj' of 
Louisiana will ever be complete without recounting the 
deeds of that gallant band known as the White Camelias, 
who at the cost of such tragedies as the Monroe and 
Colfax riots restored the white race to control of north 
Louisiana. 

Of them all none more bravely or more loyally fought 
the good fight than did Samuel Douglas McEnery, and to 
the very last there were thousands of men in that great 
section of our State who, recalling the part he played 
in reconstruction times, rallied enthusiastically to his sup- 
port whenever he was a candidate, without regard to local 
problems or however much they disagreed with his atti- 
tude on national questions. 

His gubernatorial service will be best and longest 
remembered because in his administrations the founda- 
tion of a rehabilitated public-school system was laid, 
broad and deep enough to sustain the magnificent one 
that now prevails in Louisiana, and even more, because 
as during his term our State suffered the most disastrous 
overflow in its history, so with him as chief executive was 
enacted the first legislation that created the present levee 
board system, which through the union of local taxation 
and Government aid has given us of the Pelican State the 
same feeling of security which the Hollanders feel behind 
their dikes. 

I sometimes think that his judicial career was the most 
remarkable and noteworthy of his public life. Trained 
at Annapolis for the Navy, it is true that he had studied 
law at the University of Virginia and at the National Law 
School at Poughkeepsie, and had, during the storm and 
stress of reconstruction times, practiced his profession, 

[101] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator McEnery 



but he had never held judicial office and had for more 
than a decade been engaged with the duties of lieutenant 
governor and governor when he was appointed to the 
supreme bench in 1888. He gave the greatest satisfaction 
in that capacity. As a member of the Louisiana bar, I 
make so bold as to say that his decisions will stand com- 
parison with those of our best jurists; they are charac- 
terized by an admirable grasp of the salient facts, by a 
thorough knowledge of the record, by an unusual display 
of common sense, and by an informing sympathy with 
the great basic principles of the law, and by a terseness 
and vividness of expression that can not but arrest the 
reader. 

He came to the Senate just before the Dingley bill was 
under discussion, at a time when the two great parties 
were very evenly balanced in that body. If 1 mistake not, 
his was the pivotal vote that made possible the passage 
of the Dingley bill. A Democrat, he paid no heed to 
party platform or the action of his Democratic colleagues, 
doing that which he believed best for the interests of his 
State. 

Soon after the Spanish War came on, and the treaty of 
Paris, with annexation of Porto Rico and "benevolent 
assimilation" of the Philippines, was presented to the 
Senate for ratification. Again his vote was the deciding 
one, and it was cast against his party associates, for rati- 
fication, and for the right as he saw it. The McEnery 
resolution declaring the policy of this Government with 
regard to our insular possessions will ever live in history. 
Again, in the last tariff legislation he was a conspicuous 
figure, voting, as he had announced on the hustings and 
to the General Assembly of Louisiana, that had unani- 
mously elected him, for the best interests of Louisiana 
as he understood them, regardless of party tenets. 
Samuel Douglas McEnery is the only man in Louisiana 

[102] 



AODRESS OF Mk. DlPRE, OF LonSIANA 

who could have pursued such a course and continued to 
retain the official confidence and support of his people. 

Mr. Speaker, Senator McEnery possessed in a remark- 
able degree the faculty of making and holding friends. 
He seemed to emerge from a political defeat stronger 
than before his entrance into the contest, maintaining the 
enthusiastic devotion of his followers and obtaining the 
good will and respect of liis opponents. For instance, he 
was defeated by Gen. Francis Tillou Nicholls for the 
Democratic nomination for governor in 1888, and within 
a short time thereafter was appointed by Gov. Nicholls, 
his recent antagonist, to the supreme bench. Gov. 
Nicholls himself in 1892 became chief justice of the 
supreme court of our State, and I have it from his own 
lips that he and Senator McEnery grew, in the daily asso- 
ciation of the consultation room, to be close personal 
friends. Again in 1892 Senator McEnery was defeated 
for the Democratic nomination for governor by the pres- 
ent senior Senator from Louisiana, Murphy J. Foster. 
Within four years it came to pass that Samuel Douglas 
McEnery was, with the approval of his former political 
foe. Gov. Foster, elected to the United States Senate, a 
position for which he was not a candidate and which came 
to him absolutely unsolicited. Only a week ago 1 listened 
in the Senate Chamber to the eulog\' delivered by Senator 
Foster on his former colleague and heard him testify to 
the intimate cordiality of their relations in the Senate and 
to the deep affection which he came to feel for his former 
opponent. It only needed association and closer ac- 
quaintance with Senator McEnery to learn to love him. 

Senator McEnery was in public life from 1877 to 1910. 
He was often engaged in fierce factional conflicts, but 
never did the breath of suspicion attach to his personal 
character or his official rectitude. After a lifetime spent 
in the public service he died poor, but I violate no profes- 

[103] 



Memokiai. AoDRiissKS : Sknator McEnery 



sional confidence when I state that, if he left behind him 
but little of this world's goods, he died owing no man a 
penny. Knowing him as I did, it has often struck me that 
Robert Louis Stevenson, the well beloved, might have had 
him in mind when writing those memorable lines in his 
Christmas sermon defining the chart of true manhood : 

To be honest; to be kind; to earn a little and to spend a little 
less; to make, upon the whole, a family happier for his presence; 
to be able to renounce when that shall be necessary, but without 
embitterment; to have a few friends, but these without capitula- 
tion, and on the same given condition to keep friends with one's 
self — here is a task for all that a man has of fortitude and 
delicacy. 



I 



[104] 



Address of Mr. Wickliffe, of Louisiana 

Mr. Speaker: On June 28, 1910, Samuel Douglas 
McEnery, a Senator of the United States from Louisiana, 
died. To those looking for a true story of the life and 
character of a pubHc man it might be said: "Wait till 
death shall still the lips of prejudice and bias." For every 
man, especially if he be prominent in national life, has 
some enemies undeserved or some friends, so called, 
whose amicable relations toward him may be due to 
favors received or expected at his hands. 

Again it may be said with some measure of truth that 
fulsome eulogies pronounced soon after death, before the 
grass has yet grown green above the grave, are too reac- 
tionary- to be truthful and are more the result of a desire 
to speak well of one who was but yesterday a living, sen- 
tient being by our side than to hold a mirror up to reality. 
Hence to write a true biography perhaps a generation 
should pass after the death of the subject before a Boswell 
or a Lockhart should take up his pen. It is a question 
whether, after all, either he who knew one of his fellow 
men intimately and loved him as a friend or he who was a 
contemporary of the departed one and held him as an 
enemy is qualified to mold posterity's opinion of any 
great character in history. 

The truth can never come from the putrid lips of 
prejudice nor emanate from the inane utterance of the 
fawning flatterer. 

But I leave these comments as not altogether germane, 
since we are here to-day not for the purpose of attempt- 
ing biograph}', nor to attempt to assume the role of a 
Boswell or a Lockhart, but as those who were his fellow 

[105] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator McEnerv 

legislators, to pay simple and humble tribute to the mem- 
ory of him whom we knew well. And yet, while we come 
as friends who knew him well and loved him sincerely for 
his many good qualities of mind and heart, I for one 
realize that to overestimate the renown of him whose 
death we mourn to-day would add no particle of solace 
to the loved ones left behind. 

It would not be his wish if, across the " great divide," 
he could communicate with us here; for no characteristic 
was more firmly impressed upon even the most casual 
acquaintance of Senator McEnery than his intense and 
sincere modesty and his scorn for and hatred of flatterj'. 

He was a man who " would not flatter Neptune for his 
trident nor Jove for his power to thunder; " and bearing 
such motto upon his shield he would not willingly, nor 
without protest, sutler hiiHself to hear concerning him- 
self that which he was too manly to say to another. 

With this most characteristic element in his nature 
firmly impressed upon my memoi-y, I shall respect that 
attribute of our friend, dead, just as I even refrained from 
transgressing his will in that particular while he lived. 

In speaking of Samuel Douglas McEnery, I do not 
claim for him a place in our historj' above other great 
men who have preceded him to tlie great unknown. I 
realize full well that this Nation has in its life during 
which four generations have passed produced brilliant 
sons, great statesmen, and warriors renowned, while the 
Old World has in its march on down through the centuries 
passed given birth to her share of the great. 

The pen of a Herndon or of a Weems may not give to 
posterity the story of his career; the l)rush of a Trumbull 
or Meissonier may not hand down to those of the after- 
math a canvas preserving the epochs of his life; and his- 
torians may pass his tomb without turning to gaze at the 
name inscribed thereon. 



[106] 



Address of Mr. Wickliffe, of Louisiana 



Yea, upon the stage of our Nation's life there may have 
been actors of more note, upon whom the calcium light 
glittered and shimmered in more brilliant rays; but never 
in all our national life did one hold a great office of trust 
whose form inclosed a truer, nobler heart, which throbbed 
with a purer desire to do the right in public life as God 
gave him to see it, than the dead man. Never was there 
a more generous foe, nor a more loyal friend. 

From his birth at Monroe, La., May 28, 1837, to his 
death on June 28, 1910, his career was made up of many 
marked and thrilling events. 1 shall not attempt to detail 
at great length his life stoiT, nor the many places of honor 
and trust which he held. 

Born of Irish ancestrj', educated at Spring Hill College, 
Alabama, the United States Naval Academy, the Uni- 
versity of Virginia, and at an eastern law school, his mind 
was broadened in early youth and manhood by associa- 
tion with those who came from all parts of the Nation. 

His ardent espousal of the cause of his State in 1861 and 
his brave and gallant services in the Confederate Army 
were in keeping with his whole life, for he loved Louisiana 
above all else, and where she went he followed, as Ruth 
did Naomi. 

A private citizen after 1865 for a decade or more, lieu- 
tenant governor of his State in 1879, its governor from 
1881 to 1888, justice of the supreme court of Louisiana, 
1888 to 1897, and a United States Senator from that time 
to the date of his death, being three times elected to that 
great body, all proclaim the great esteem in which he was 
held by his people, and their undying confidence in him. 
Soldier, lawyer, governor, jurist, and Senator of the 
United States, he served his people well, and they, in turn, 
denied him nothing. Sequcntly new honors came upon 
him during almost a generation, yet he was " no petted 
sprig of Norman blood, rocked and dandled into office." 

[107] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator McEnery 

From earliest manhood his people had his love and re- 
spect and he their confidence and admiration, and to the 
end Samuel Douglas McEnery never lost the former feel- 
ing for them, nor his people the latter for him. 

The honors he received at their hands came to him in 
almost every instance unsolicited. Within 24 hours after 
he permitted the use of his name as a candidate, at the 
earnest solicitation of the leaders of his party, he was 
chosen by the caucus as the Democratic nominee for the 
United States Senate in 1896 and elected soon after, and 
never afterwards had opposition. 

His political career began, we might say, in 1856, when 
but a lad of 18 years, while at home on vacation from col- 
lege, he took an active part on the stump in behalf of the 
Democratic candidate for governor against the Know 
Nothing or American Party and contributed in no small 
degree to the success of the former; for notwithstand- 
ing his extreme youth he early evinced the capacity for 
grasping public questions and of expressing himself force- 
fully, effectively, and with forensic ability. These facts I 
learned from the lips of one who was the chief beneficiary 
of his loyal and effective support in that election. The 
secretiveness, the narrowness, the un-American ideas and 
doctrines of the Know Nothing Party were abhorrent to 
his open and frank nature and to his liberal ideas of the 
rights of his fellow men. 

His ability as a law>'er was well known, and when the 
Federal investigating committee of the United States 
Senate was sent to Louisiana in 1876 to investigate the 
election of that great and patriotic man, Francis T. 
Nicholls, as governor of Louisiana, Edward D. White 
(now Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of our Nation), 
Ernest Benjamin Kruttschnitt (a nephew of Judah P. 
Benjamin), and Samuel D. McEnery presented the cause 
of the Democratic Party, and so well and so ably did they 

[108] 



Address of Mr. Wk.kliffe, of Louisiana 



perform this service that the Federal Government refused 
to further interfere in the politics of the State, and the 
beginning of the end of negro rule in Louisiana was at 
hand. 

The reconstruction period in Louisiana and the South! 
No voice nor word painting of man has ever yet fully 
bespoken its terrors; no brush of artist can or has ever 
portrayed its horrors; and not even the masterful pen of 
Thomas Dixon has adequately described that reign of 
license and lust for loot by carpetbag government which 
pervaded the State legislative halls in the later sixties 
and early seventies, nor given complete description of the 
black pall which covered the corpse of the Confederacy. 

Yet amid it all there arose figures — dauntless, uncon- 
querable, unafraid, unmovable — who "played hide and 
seek with death " or incarceration in a felon's cell that 
the land of Washington, of Jefferson, and of Jackson 
might be preserved to the Caucasian race. And in this 
group, among those who stood in the forefront to save 
his State from the horrors of murder, rapine, and plunder 
at the joint hands of African and carpetbagger, Samuel 
D. McEnery risked life, liberty, property, all. 

To him resistance to negro domination was as obedience 
to God, and on this question there was no compromise 
with him. 

In later years of his service in the Senate Senator 
McEnery was afflicted with deafness, which, while ordi- 
narily a great handicap to most men, yet with him it 
caused no cessation in his labors, for, unable to hear the 
proceedings in the Senate he read the Record carefully 
each day, and was better posted on matters transpiring in 
Congress than many of the Members who were not so 
afflicted. 

Such was his work, while chief executive of his State, 
for the redemption from overflow of her fertile lands that 

[109] 



I 



Memorial Addresses: Senator McEnery 

he takes his place in the history of Louisiana and in the 
traditions of her people as the beloved " levee governor," 
by which title he is now and always will be remembered. 
Stephen Montague said : 

To know how a bad man will act when in power, reverse all 
the doctrines he preached when obscure. 

Here was a man who always, before being chosen to 
any olTice even, declared his position on all questions, and 
lived up to those declarations when power was bestowed 
upon him. 

As an evidence of his frankness and love of the open, 
it is recalled that before being chosen by the Democratic 
Party caucus as its nominee for the Senate in 1896, he 
declared in an address to the members of that caucus his 
differences with the National Democracy on the tariff 
question, and, frankly avowing his faith and belief in the 
theorj^ of protection, stated that he took his place by the 
side of Samuel J. Randall, and hence, while at variance 
often with most of his State delegation in Congress, it 
can never be said that in voting for that doctrine consist- 
ently throughout his years of service in the Senate he in 
any manner deceived his people, who so often repeatedly 
elected him to the United States Senate. 

There were those in Louisiana who agreed with him on 
this question, and while a vast number did not, yet such 
was the nobility of his character and his sincerity of pur- 
pose that the latter class forgot this difference for many 
other issues on which there was perfect accord between 
him and them. 

His honesty was his pride, and the slightest stain upon 
his reputation for probity, if believed by his people, would 
have tortured him like the shirt of Nessus. Of criticism 
by his friends he was duly sensitive; but the calunmiator 
and muckrakcr who sought to impugn his motives and 

[110] 



Address of Mr. Wickliffe, of Louisiana 

to destroy his reputation for honesty were ever answered 
simply by his dignified silence, knowing full well that his 
people trusted him always and believed him honest. He 
was ever fond of quoting what Gayarre handed down as 
emanating from the first American governor of Louisiana, 
W. C. C. Claiborne: 

The lie of the day gives nie no concern. Neglected calumny 

soon expires. Notice it, and you gratify your calumniators; 

prosecute it, and it acquires consequence; punish it, and you 
enlist in its favor the public sympathy. 

In Senator McEnery were the precepts of true justice 
so defined by Justinian, that constant and perpetual dis- 
position to render every man his due. He never made a 
promise but that he kept it; never was a trust reposed in 
him that he betrajed. The Delphic oracle had no stand- 
ing among his ideals, and double tongue was never a sub- 
terfuge of this frank, bold man. 

As a companion Senator McEnery was to the last most 
attractive. Many an evening have 1 visited him in the 
modest quarters were he resided in Washington, and 
after dinner, while enjoying a cigar, he frequently became 
reminiscent, and gazing into " that world of memory 
in which the distant seems to grow clear and the near to 
fade," he loved to speak of antebellum days in Louisiana 
and was most entertaining upon that subject, while few 
if any could recite or depict more vividly the true history 
of reconstruction. Seldom did he wish to dwell much 
upon matters that did not pertain to Louisiana, her peo- 
ple, and what had happened or was still happening there; 
and not in the sad sense which Scott intended, but as an 
emblem of the State he loved, his heart found solace in 
the literal meaning of the words: 

Oh, lady, twine no wreath for me. 
Or twine it of the cypress tree. 



[Ill] 



Memorial Addresses: Senatoh Mc;P>nery 

Truly he was Louisiana's " grand old man." We loved 
Senator McEnery living; we mourn him dead. We re- 
garded him with that devotion which Cicero so loved to 
laud in " De Amicitia " — friendship, exalted friendship, 
the love of man for man. Hosts of Louisianians there are 
still loving him for the memories of long ago when in the 
pride of his young manhood, and more who knew and 
revered him in the grandeur of his old age, and who now, 
that he dwells in the land "beyond the turmoil of re- 
nown," shall revere him as one who while he stopped 
here made the world better for his stay. His name will 
not perish in the grave of his body. 

A soldier, but "one who never turned his back to an 
enemy, and who knelt to none save God; " a citizen whose 
services to his people in the dark era of the seventies will 
not yield in splendor to those of N. B. Forrest: a governor 
whose administration took up the cord of prosperity 
where broken and put asunder for two decades, and 
united the ends in lasting strength; a justice of the 
supreme court of his State who held the scales so evenly 
as to demonstrate to all that his sole motive was that jus- 
tice be done, the united interest of the people preserved, 
and confidence in the court maintained, until the motto of 
Louisiana was not more a guide for him than he for it; a 
Senator of the United States whose three terms of service 
saw him as faithful to his people on the morning of .lune 
28, 1910, as the youth of 18 in 1856 and the soldier of 23 in 
1861. From the beginning to the end he served well. 

If the Father deigns to touch with divine power the cold and 
pulseless heart of the buried acorn and makes it burst forth from 
its prison walls, will He leave negligent the soul of man who was 
made in the image of his Creator? If He stoops to give to the 
rosebush, whose withered blossoms float upon the autumn breeze, 
the sweet assurance of another springtime, will He withhold the 
words of hope from the souls of men when the frosts of winter 

[112] 



Address of 'Sin. Wickliffe, of Louisiana 



come? If matter, mute and inanimate, tliougli clianged by tlie 
force of nature into a nuiltitude of forms, can never die, will the 
spirit of man suffer anniliilation after it has paid a brief visit 
like a royal guest to this tenement of clay? Rather let us believe 
that He, who wastes not the raindrop, the blade of grass, nor the 
evening's sighing zephyr, but makes them all to carry out His 
eternal plans, has given immortality to the mortal and gathered 
to himself the generous spirit of our friend. 

The Speaker pro tempore. In accordance with the reso- 
hitions heretofore adopted, as a further mark of respect 
to the late Senator Dolliver and the late Senator McEnery, 
the House will adjourn. 



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